It used to be that winners of the Nobel Prize for Peace had to have done something significant to advance the cause of peace. Maybe they negotiated a peace treaty. Maybe they had worked for years for human rights. Perhaps they were internationally known for their human rights work.

And while I haven't always agreed with the choices made, I've at least understood them. Even Al Gore's award two years ago, tinged by political correctness and support for junk science, made some sort of sense, given his history of environmental work.

But now we have seen confirmed a simple reality -- the once-prestigious award has become a joke, the Nobel Prize for Liberalism.

In a stunning surprise, the Nobel Committee announced Friday that it had awarded its annual peace prize to President Obama “for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples.”

“He has created a new international climate,” the committee said in its announcement. President Obama’s name had not figured in speculation about the likely winner until minutes before the prize was announced here.

Likely candidates had been seen here as including human rights activists in China and Afghanistan and political figures in Africa.

The committee said it wanted to enhance Mr. Obama’s diplomatic efforts. “We are awarding Obama for what he has done,” the committee said. “Many other people and leaders and nations have to respond in a positive way” to President Obama’s diplomacy.

In other words, they gave the award for Hope'N'Change, not for any actual accomplishment or substantive body of work on the part of President Obama.

Especially since nominations had to be in by February 1, 2009, a mere 11 days after his inauguration. Yeah, that's right -- he'd been president for eleven days on the deadline day for nominations. He had done nothing substantive then -- and still has no substantive accomplishments after less than nine months in office. Sort of like his lack of substantive accomplishments during his years as a do-nothing state legislator and his partial term as absentee Senator from Illinois

Let's say it -- the award is absurd. No, scratch that -- the award is obscene.

In one fell swoop, the Nobel Committee has degraded and discredited itself in the eyes of anyone with common sense and common decency. Today marks the day that the Nobel Peace Prize has jumped the shark.