The Nobel Committee awarded Barack Obama the peace prize for the same reason that Americans elected him president last year: his image as a uniter. The committee said, "His diplomacy is founded in the concept that those who are to lead the world must do so on the basis of values and attitudes that are shared by the majority of the world's population." Obama echoed that sentiment when he called the prize "an affirmation of American leadership on behalf of aspirations held by people in all nations."