OK, I know I’ve been out of the loop this week, but what in the hell?! Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize? When I saw the headlines, I honestly thought it was some kind of gag.

But seriously — Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize? He hasn’t even done anything!

President Obama said Friday that he was “surprised and deeply humbled” by the decision of the Norwegian Nobel Committee to award him the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize.

The committee said it honored Obama for his “extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples.”

… The Nobel committee recognized Obama’s efforts at dialogue to solve complex global problems, including working toward a world free of nuclear weapons.

“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.

This is completely ludicrous. Obama’s certainly not the first president to receive the Nobel, but the other ones… well, at least they actually did something to earn it!

President Obama was awarded the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize on Friday for his work to improve international diplomacy and rid the world of nuclear weapons — a stunning decision to celebrate a figure virtually unknown in the world before he launched his campaign for the White House nearly three years ago.

… In honoring Obama, 48, the Norwegian Nobel Committee echoed a global embrace of the U.S. president that has seen his popularity overseas often exceed his support at home. Though Obama’s name surfaced early among contenders, the announcement astonished observers — drawing gasps from the audience in Oslo — in part because Obama assumed office less than two weeks before the Feb. 1 deadline for nominations.

The committee praised Obama for his “extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples” during his nine months in office and singled out for special recognition Obama’s call for a world free of nuclear weapons, the subject of a major speech April 5 in Prague.

… Obama is the third sitting U.S. president — and the first in 90 years — to win the coveted peace prize. His predecessors won during their second White House terms, however, and after significant diplomatic achievements. Woodrow Wilson was awarded the prize in 1919, after helping to found the League of Nations and shaping the Treaty of Versailles; and Theodore Roosevelt was the recipient in 1906 for his work to negotiate an end to the Russo-Japanese war.

In contrast, Obama is struggling with two wars — weighing whether to increase the number of U.S. troops fighting in Afghanistan and overseeing the withdrawal of American combat troops from Iraq. He is mired in domestic struggles over health-care reform and economic recovery efforts, and searching for ways to build momentum to restart Israeli-Palestinian peace talks and to assemble an international effort to stop Iran’s nuclear program.

The White House said early Friday afternoon that Obama has decided to give the $1.4 million accompanying the prize to charity. Obama has not selected which charity or charities will receive the money.

Someone please explain to me what Obama did in the two weeks before the February 1 nominations that equal Woodrow Wilson’s or Teddy Roosevelt’s accomplishments — or even, God help me for saying this, Jimmy Carter’s? All Obama did in those two weeks, and really throughout his entire presidency, was give a few speeches. Jimmy Carter was at least able to broker a peace agreement between Israel and Egypt in 1978, and he’s also done some good work with Habitat for Humanity. I’m not a fan of Jimmy Carter’s, but jeez — at least he’s accomplished something in his pitiful life. Obama has done nothing!

Obama’s entire presidency has been a failure. He hasn’t fixed the economy — he’s made it worse. He hasn’t achieved nuclear disarmament anywhere — in fact, North Korea and Iran are building up their nuclear program under Barack Obama. He’s given plenty of speeches and TV interviews, but he’s accomplished nothing. Yet for some reason he wins the Nobel Peace Prize.

Has the entire world lost its collective mind?!