Chicago, Athens, and Jerusalem

What do people around the world think of President Barack Obama being awarded the Nobel Peace Prize? According to a Wall Street Journal article on the fallout from Obama’s win, this might be a sign of the times:

When David Beckham was named “man of the match” in England’s World Cup qualifying soccer game this week despite playing for just 30 minutes, his coach, Fabio Capello, mocked the honor as being “like Obama getting the Nobel Prize.”

Megan McArdle adds:

Call me crazy, but I think that maybe to earn the Nobel prize, a million dollars, and all the associated prestige, you ought to have made efforts somewhat more heroic than chairing a meeting in which you said that you thought we ought to have fewer nuclear arms–even one in which you said that the US also thought we ought to have fewer nuclear arms.  You should, I don’t know, deliver a deal or something.

For a more measured consideration of this particular issue, here are some arguments against and for Obama deserving the prize, courtesy of The Economist‘s Democracy In America blog.

Well, at least John McCain has no problem with Obama winning the Nobel Peace Prize…