
Editor's Note: American Morning's Friday audience responded to breaking news of President Obama’s win for the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize. The majority offered praise for the president’s efforts for “consistently trying to open the doors of communication and peace between the nations of our global community.” Those questioning the Nobel Committee’s choice considered the win “an affront to President Bush plain and simple,” and asked “just what did he actually do?”
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How do you feel about the president’s win of the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize?
(CNN) – President Obama on Friday said he was "surprised and deeply humbled" by winning the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize.
"I do not view it as a recognition of my own accomplishments, but rather as an affirmation of American leadership," Obama said from the White House Rose Garden.
"I will accept this award as a call to action."
Obama said he did not feel he deserves "to be in the company" of past winners.
The Nobel announcement was a stunning decision that comes just eight months into Obama's presidency.
President Barack Obama won the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize on Friday, a stunning decision that comes just eight months into his presidency.
The decision appeared to catch most observers by surprise. Ed Rollins, CNN political contributor and Republican strategist, says the question now is what does he do with it?
Rollins joined John Roberts and Kiran Chetry on CNN’s “American Morning” Friday. Below is an edited transcript of the interview.
John Roberts: The president has given three significant speeches talking about peace – in Germany, in Cairo, and at the United Nations. He's traveled the world very extensively in the first nine months of his presidency. Could that not be said – and considering too the change in tone – to be worthy of being recognized with the Nobel peace prize?
Ed Rollins: You usually get recognized at the end of some major accomplishment. I think three speeches are a start from his perspective. And I want to congratulate him. I'm always for Americans winning, whether it’s golf, tennis, or the international stage. And it's a lot better Friday than last Friday, when he woke up saying, “We came in fourth.”
I think at this point, the thing I'm curious about is, this is a storybook made-for-TV story. A young senator basically gets elected president after a very short period of time. Nine months into his administration, when the world is still at war – he’s sitting down at a war council today – he gets the Nobel Peace Prize. I mean, if you presented that as a made-for-TV, you probably would get the script rejected.
The key thing I think today is how does he think of himself now? … I'm now a Nobel Peace Prize winner. I've got to go out and make sure I create peace in the world. Not a bad objective. Except, are you as commander in chief basically going to abdicate some of your duties?
(CNN) – President Obama was awarded the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize on Friday.
The first African-American to win the White House, Obama was praised by the Norwegian Nobel Committee for "his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples."
"Only very rarely has a person to the same extent as Obama captured the world's attention and given its people hope for a better future," the committee said. "His diplomacy is founded in the concept that those who are to lead the world must do so on the basis of values and attitudes that are shared by the majority of the world's population."
The committee also said Obama has "created a new climate in international politics."
The announcement came as a surprise - Obama's name had not been mentioned among front-runners - and the roomful of reporters in Oslo, Norway, gasped when he was named.
In his short time in office, Obama has acted on a wide range of issues from the economy to terrorism and wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Obama also lobbied unsuccessfully to bring the 2016 Olympics to Chicago, Illinois. After returning from Denmark, Obama expressed no regret about his trip, saying it is "always a worthwhile endeavor to promote and boost the United States."
Don Draper. He's the charismatic lead character in AMC"s "Mad Men," a TV show that takes place in the sixties when women mostly stayed at home, and men brought home the bacon. Draper is a suave "ad man," who cheats on his wife, but supports her financially. And who treats most other women like dirt. Women we talked to who watch the show – LOVE him.
“Don Draper. He’s just so mysterious,” says one 26-year-old. “It's a very particular type of magnetism – he is just so confident, and he never doubts himself,” says another young woman. One young woman summed it up best when she said, “You know he's not good for you, but like oh my God, you know, I have to have it!”
Some female viewers love Don Draper so much, they didn't blink an eye when he went beyond "bad boy" behavior to, um, sexual assault in a clip from season two .
Even Jezebel, a feminist women's blogsite, gave him a pass for this because "...sometimes assertive women get tired of always being so damn assertive ... sometimes they like to be told what to do."
Just sayin' – Are women secretly yearning for a bad boy?
Psychiatrist Gail Saltz says, “I think that women have throughout the ages ... yearned for the bad boy” and that women love the idea of Don Draper because, today they feel overwhelmed in a down economy with work, the kids, and the needy husband.
According to a study by the Wharton school, called “The Paradox of Declining Female Happiness," ...women's happiness has fallen both absolutely and relative to men's…”
The 60's world of Mad Men is, what Dr. Saltz calls, "a fantasy solution." “The idea that the knight would come in and scoop them up and make everything easier is also very appealing, but it's a fantasy that doesn't include the being suppressed, you're not having anything of your own, it doesn't include those things.”.
But there's even a TV show about a wife who's loyal to her cheating politician husband – called "The Good Wife."
And in real life women have scorned "cheaters" like former New York Governor Eliot Spitzer, South Carolina's Governor Sanford and John Edwards.
Yet they've given some cheating men a pass like Bill Clinton and now, seemingly David Letterman. Want the real life reason why? Dr. Saltz says it's "very much a function of how much you identify with the woman who's been hurt. Feel sorry for her – hate the man. Think she can take it – his cheatin' heart might be okay.”
What do you think? Why do women love the cheatin' Don Draper? Do we now yearn for that old-fashioned, bring home the bacon kind of guy?

