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From abc news By RUSSELL GOLDMAN

The already high bar set for President Obama got even higher Friday, when the Nobel Prize Committee shocked the world, and the president himself, by announcing he was to receive the Nobel Peace Prize.

Just nine months into his presidency, Obama has set an ambitious diplomatic agenda, calling for peace between Israel and the Palestinians and a decrease in the world's nuclear weapons, but has yet to achieve any real results.

Already faced with the challenge of working to ensure his actions keep pace with his rhetoric, the president now has an even higher standard by which his accomplishments will be gauged.

As his former opponent, Sen. John McCain, R- Ariz., put it: "He now has even more to live up to."

The committee said it awarded the prize to Obama for his "extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples," but made the clear the prize was intended to encourage Obama to greatness rather than celebrate any achievement.

Translation

Die ohnehin schon hohe Erwartung