News Cut: October 9, 2009 Archive

Does Obama deserve the Nobel Peace Prize?

Posted at 7:43 AM on October 9, 2009 by Ken Paulman (28 Comments)

Story here.

The decision is being hailed by world leaders this morning, including Mikhail Gorbachev and Desmond Tutu.

Stateside, though, reactions are a bit mixed. The headline on the Drudge Report this morning: "For What?"

Part of the reason for the skepticism is that Obama had been president all of 12 days when the nomination process had come to a close.

Discuss.

Update: This topic is also Today's Question

Update: Here's the Norwegian Nobel Committee's brief narrative of how Nobel Laureates are selected. The final decision sometimes takes until early October.

Obama's Peace Prize: The world reacts

Posted at 9:10 AM on October 9, 2009 by Ken Paulman (5 Comments)

The New York Times' Sharon Otterman has a nice roundup of global reaction from on The Lede blog this morning. The doubts that many people are expressing on News Cut this morning seem to be reflected elsewhere.

Be sure to listen to Midmorning today from 9-10 for more discussion - guests include Matthew Continetti, associate editor of The Weekly Standard, and Sen. Al Franken.

The wedding dance, redux

Posted at 11:49 AM on October 9, 2009 by Than Tibbetts (2 Comments)

If you watch the NBC comedy The Office, you might have noticed the nod to a familiar (and famous) Minnesota wedding.

The original video now has more than 27 million views on YouTube, but, as you may recall, the wedding party's wrangling between morning talk shows cost them a return flight home from New York.

Tom Crann talked to the mother of the bride and the church's pastor shortly after Jill and Kevin's unusual processional.