One view of President Barack Obama was expressed this week on Saturday Night Live.
Another view was expressed this morning by the Norwegian Nobel Committee in awarding him its prestigious Peace Prize.
The simple explanation for the Committee's decision to cite Mr. Obama at this stage of his presidency is that he is not George W. Bush.
The more generous interpretation is that the decision is hortatory; that is, it is designed to encourage the President to follow a path in U.S. foreign policy that is preferred by Committee members.
International awards and international popularity are no doubt gratifying. However, in the end, Mr. Obama is a politician who must help get Democrats elected to office next year, and must himself get re-elected by Americans in 2012. There is substantial tension between these considerations, to say the least.
On the issue of climate change, as just one of many examples of this tension, the Nobel Committee declares in its statement:
"Thanks to Obama's initiative, the USA is now playing a more constructive role in meeting the great climatic challenges the world is confronting."
And here, from yesterday's Guardian , under the headline "U.S. threatens to derail climate talks by refusing to include Kyoto targets" is what is actually happening on the ground:
"The U.S. threatened to derail a deal on global climate change today in a public showdown with China by expressing deep opposition to the existing Kyoto protocol. The U.S. team also urged other rich countries to join it in setting up a new legal agreement which would, unlike Kyoto, force all countries to reduce emissions.
"In a further development, the EU sided strongly with the U.S. in seeking a new agreement, but said that it hoped the best elements of Kyoto could be kept. China and many developing countries immediately hit back stating that the protocol, the world's only legally binding commitment to get countries to reduce emissions, was not negotiable'."
Update: In his statement accepting the Nobel Peace Prize, Barack Obama subtly re-interpreted the Nobel committee's foreign policy philosophy-be it on nuclear arms, climate change or the Afghanistan war-by placing it within the framework of his primary responsibility as President of the United States. Plus he showed humility. Smart domestic politics against his Republican opponents. And an astute way to ensure that the Prize is not used to as a stick to beat him into sacrificing US national interests in future negotiations.