My Sunday column

President Barack Obama won the Nobel Prize on Friday, shocking many astute political observers, some of whom were still struggling to learn how to spell his name.
It was a day of triumph for Obama, who also received the Vezina Trophy for being professional hockey’s most outstanding goalie.
Presidential adviser David Axelrod acknowledged the president was stunned by the news. When told of his good fortune, the president responded, “What you talkin’ ’bout, Willis?”
Later, after having time to let the news soak in, the president said, “What you talkin’ ’bout, Willis?”
Worldwide, the acclaim for Obama’s feat drew much praise.
North Korea, Iran and the Afghanistan-Pakistan border areas all sent their congratulations.
North Korean President Kim Jong Il issued a statement praising Obama.
“The People’s Exalted Leader Kim Jong Il is proud to share this year’s Nobel Peace Prize with President Barack Obama.”
When asked if Kim was a co-winner, Ole Olsen, head of the Norwegian Nobel Prize Committee, chuckled and said, “Of course not. We tell him he is every year. Otherwise he calls us three times a day to complain.”
Obama DOES share a proud Nobel history with such stalwarts for peace as the late Yasir Arafat, who you remember, had his Nobel trophy wired to a bomb and tossed on a bus full of Israeli schoolchildren.
Olsen, who headed a prize committee made up of 11 other people named Ole Olsen, said Obama won the award because of his decisive efforts to bring about world peace, which might come as a surprise to the 60,000 American troops sitting in idling planes on a tarmac at Fort Bragg waiting on the president to decide what he’s going to do in Afghanistan.
Which brings up the question of how do you give a peace prize to a world leader who is simultaneously prosecuting two major wars, ordering deadly drone missile strikes into a country we have no troops in and who only hours earlier presided over the bombing of the moon by NASA?
When asked this question, Ole Olsen said “What you talkin’ ’bout, Willis?”
Obama’s victory in Oslo didn’t please everyone.
America’s Vast Right Wing Conspiracy — you know, half the country —reacted with something less than joy.
Rush Limbaugh swallowed his cigar. Michelle Malkin punched an illegal alien. Ann Coulter ate a full meal.
Former Vice President Dick Cheney called for the immediate invasion of Norway.
Told at this ranch in Texas, President Bush stopped chopping wood long enough to say “&^%$*@)%&! me? &^%$*@)%&! them!”
In Plains, former President Jimmy Carter wished Obama well and then launched into a 30-minute speech about what the new president is doing wrong.
The news reverberated through the halls of Congress, where Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid immediately called a joint-news conference and once again pretended not to despise each other for a grueling five minutes.
The president is already hard at work on his acceptance speech, said Axelrod.
“For instance, he has Sasha’s big globe out and is trying to find Norway,” Axelrod said.
“The president wants to make sure he thanks everyone who contributed to his receiving the Nobel — Chairman Mao, Alec Baldwin, Karl Marx, Madonna, Che Guevara, DJ Jazzy Jeff, the prize committee full of drunken Norwegians and most of all, the good folks at ACORN who counted the votes.”

Jimmy Espy is executive editor of The Daily Citizen. He blogs at Espysoutpost.blogpsot.com The moon bomb joke came from Jamie Jones.