North Coast residents reacted with pride at the surprise news that President Barack Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize.

He becomes the third sitting president to earn the accolade. Presidents Teddy Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson won in 1906 and 1919; Jimmy Carter won in 2002 for his post-presidential accomplishments.

Larry Taylor, the Clatsop County Democratic Party Committee chairman, was on his way to Portland to hear San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom speak when he heard the news. “It’s extremely exciting and well deserved, Taylor said. “It shows his extraordinary leadership and how lucky we are to have him as president.”

Willis Van Dusen, mayor of Astoria, was similarly delighted.

“I think this is a very significant award for our entire country,” he said. “I’m very proud. President Obama represents our country and all of us. I’m just absolutely ecstatic. It absolutely made my day.”

Reached on vacation in Central Oregon this morning, Cannon Beach Mayor Mike Morgan was surprised. “I’m shocked. I’m a big Obama fan. I think it’s great,” Morgan said. “I hope he can produce peace in Afghanistan. I think he’s really got to get us out of there.”

Around the nation, others welcomed the accolade.

Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., said, “This is a great honor for the President and a source of tremendous pride for the nation. I am hopeful that this award will translate into greater peace, prosperity and security for the world.”

U.S. Rep. David Wu, who represents the North Coast, said he was absolutely delighted. “I can think of no one more deserving,” he said. “Not since Woodrow Wilson has a sitting president gotten the Nobel Peace Prize, and I’m shocked that the Republicans are responding in such a catty manner.” 

The Daily Astorian’s Newspapers in Education (NIE)?program will help students learn about the significance of the announcement.

Warrenton Grade School Principal Jan Schock said the news is sure to be brought into her classrooms.

Kate Gruetter’s seventh- and eighth-grade current events class reads the newspaper and looks online for what’s happening around the world. Some students might not know about the Peace Prize’s significance to the world or why it is given, she said.

“It’s great to be able to use current event opportunities to understand what the Nobel Prize is and why (Obama) was honored,” Schock said. They’ll probably be discussing the topic on Monday, she said.

Obama’s remarks on winning Nobel Peace PrizeText of President Barack Obama’s remarks at the White House Friday on winning the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize, as provided by the White House:

PRESDIDENT BARACK OBAMA:

Good morning. Well, this is not how I expected to wake up this morning. After I received the news, Malia walked in and said, “Daddy, you won the Nobel Peace Prize, and it is Bo’s birthday!” And then Sasha added, “Plus, we have a three-day weekend coming up.” So it’s good to have kids to keep things in perspective.

I am both surprised and deeply humbled by the decision of the Nobel Committee. Let me be clear: I do not view it as a recognition of my own accomplishments, but rather as an affirmation of American leadership on behalf of aspirations held by people in all nations.

To be honest, I do not feel that I deserve to be in the company of so many of the transformative figures who’ve been honored by this prize – men and women who’ve inspired me and inspired the entire world through their courageous pursuit of peace.

But I also know that this prize reflects the kind of world that those men and women, and all Americans, want to build – a world that gives life to the promise of our founding documents. And I know that throughout history, the Nobel Peace Prize has not just been used to honor specific achievement; it’s also been used as a means to give momentum to a set of causes. And that is why I will accept this award as a call to action – a call for all nations to confront the common challenges of the 21st century.

These challenges can’t be met by any one leader or any one nation. And that’s why my administration has worked to establish a new era of engagement in which all nations must take responsibility for the world we seek. We cannot tolerate a world in which nuclear weapons spread to more nations and in which the terror of a nuclear holocaust endangers more people. And that’s why we’ve begun to take concrete steps to pursue a world without nuclear weapons, because all nations have the right to pursue peaceful nuclear power, but all nations have the responsibility to demonstrate their peaceful intentions.

We cannot accept the growing threat posed by climate change, which could forever damage the world that we pass on to our children – sowing conflict and famine; destroying coastlines and emptying cities. And that’s why all nations must now accept their share of responsibility for transforming the way that we use energy.

We can’t allow the differences between peoples to define the way that we see one another, and that’s why we must pursue a new beginning among people of different faiths and races and religions; one based upon mutual interest and mutual respect.

And we must all do our part to resolve those conflicts that have caused so much pain and hardship over so many years, and that effort must include an unwavering commitment that finally realizes that the rights of all Israelis and Palestinians to live in peace and security in nations of their own.

We can’t accept a world in which more people are denied opportunity and dignity that all people yearn for – the ability to get an education and make a decent living; the security that you won’t have to live in fear of disease or violence without hope for the future.

And even as we strive to seek a world in which conflicts are resolved peacefully and prosperity is widely shared, we have to confront the world as we know it today. I am the commander in chief of a country that’s responsible for ending a war and working in another theater to confront a ruthless adversary that directly threatens the American people and our allies. I’m also aware that we are dealing with the impact of a global economic crisis that has left millions of Americans looking for work. These are concerns that I confront every day on behalf of the American people.

Some of the work confronting us will not be completed during my presidency. Some, like the elimination of nuclear weapons, may not be completed in my lifetime. But I know these challenges can be met so long as it’s recognized that they will not be met by one person or one nation alone. This award is not simply about the efforts of my administration – it’s about the courageous efforts of people around the world.

And that’s why this award must be shared with everyone who strives for justice and dignity – for the young woman who marches silently in the streets on behalf of her right to be heard even in the face of beatings and bullets; for the leader imprisoned in her own home because she refuses to abandon her commitment to democracy; for the soldier who sacrificed through tour after tour of duty on behalf of someone half a world away; and for all those men and women across the world who sacrifice their safety and their freedom and sometimes their lives for the cause of peace.

That has always been the cause of America. That’s why the world has always looked to America. And that’s why I believe America will continue to lead. Thank you very much.

By JENNIFER LOVEN

Associated Press

WASHINGTON – The awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize to President Barack Obama landed with a shock on the nation’s capital. He won! For what?

For one of America’s youngest presidents, in office less than nine months – and only for 12 days before the Nobel nomination deadline last February – it was an astonishing award.

But the prize seems to be more for promise than performance. Obama so far has no standout moment of victory. As for most presidents in their first year, the report card on Obama’s ambitious agenda is an “incomplete.”

He banned extreme interrogation techniques for terrorists. But he also promised to close the globally controversial U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, a task with difficulties that have Obama headed to miss his own January 2010 deadline.

He said he would end the Iraq war. But he slowed the U.S. troop drawdown a bit. Meantime, he’s running a second war in the Muslim world, in Afghanistan – and is seriously considering ramping that one up.

He has pushed for new efforts to make peace between the Israelis and Palestinians. But there’s been little cooperation so far.

His administration is talking to U.S. foes, like Iran, North Korea and Cuba. But there’s not much to show from that, either.

He said he wants a nuclear-free world. But it was one thing to show the desire in his April Prague speech, and quite another to unite hesitant nations and U.S. lawmakers behind the necessary web of treaties and agreements.

He pledged to take the lead against climate change. But the U.S. seems likely to head into December’s crucial international negotiations in Copenhagen with Obama-backed legislation still stalled.

And what about Obama’s global prestige? It seemed to take a hit exactly a week ago when his trans-Atlantic journey to win the 2016 Olympics for Chicago was rejected with a last-place finish.

For the Nobel committee, merely altering the tone out of Washington toward the rest of the world seemed enough. Obama got much attention for his speech from Cairo reaching out a U.S. hand to the world’s Muslims. His remarks at the U.N. General Assembly last month set down internationally welcome new markers for the way the U.S. works with the world.

But still. …

Obama said he was as surprised as everyone else when he was awakened about an hour after the announcement.

“I do not feel that I deserve to be in the company of so many of the transformative figures who have been honored by this prize,” he said in the Rose Garden hours later. “That is why I will accept this award as a call to action, a call for all nations to confront the common challenges of the 21st century.”

The prize is not necessarily a big plus for Obama in the tricky U.S. political arena.

He won election last year in part because voters weary with the nation’s battered image abroad were attracted to his promise of a new start. But Republicans have been criticizing Obama as being too much celebrity and too little action, and they immediately seized on this new praise – from Europeans, no less – to try to bring him down a peg.

From Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele, for instance: “It is unfortunate that the president’s star power has outshined tireless advocates who have made real achievements.”

For Nobel voters, the award could be as much a slap at Obama’s predecessor as about lauding Obama. Former President George W. Bush was reviled by much of the world for his cowboy diplomacy, Iraq war and snubbing of European priorities like global warming.

And remember that the Nobel prize has a long history of being awarded more for the committee’s aspirations than for others’ accomplishments – for Mideast peace or a better South Africa, for instance. In some cases, the prize is awarded to encourage those who receive it to see the effort through, sometimes at critical moments.

Nobel committee chairman Thorbjoern Jagland said as much. “Some people say, and I understand it, isn’t it premature? Too early?” he said in an interview with The Associated Press. “Well, I’d say then that it could be too late to respond three years from now. It is now that we have the opportunity to respond – all of us.”

Obama certainly understands his challenges are too steep to resolve quickly. “It’s not going to be easy,” the president often says as he sets tasks for the United States.

The Nobel committee, it seems, had the audacity to hope that he’ll eventually produce a record worthy of its prize.

Matt Moore in Oslo contributed to this report.

Jennifer Loven is the AP’s chief White House correspondent.