Barack Obama knows that the Nobel Peace Prize is as often given as encouragement as it is for accomplishment. So he starts off humble, says he'll accept the award, and moves on to his international relations to-do list.

He actually started off with a joke. The joke fell flat. Then: "both surprised, and deeply humbled." And "let me be clear": drink! Obama feels he doesn't deserve to be in the company of the past winners of this amazing prize. Like:

Historical war pig Teddy Roosevelt! The vile Woodrow Wilson! And, hell, Kissinger!

But he understands that he got the prize because the Scandahoovians hope he'll try diplomacy a little more often than his predecessor. And, though maybe this is giving them too much credit, they might hope the prize will discourage him from expanding the war in Afghanistan without a coherent plan for withdrawal.

For the most part, Obama was hoping to stop the prize from driving the news over the weekend, while we are all supposed to be focusing on how the Baucus bill will reduce the deficit and not still worrying about Obama's MASSIVE EGO and how much the Europeans love or hate him. (It will be amusing to watch the Drudge-followers careen from "Europeans humble Obama" to "Europeans want to kiss him so much," though. For a minute.)

And so much for that.