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I like millions of people was a little surprised that President Barack Obama was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

The fact that Mr Obama has won this prize so early in his administration without any substantial progress on foreign policy is a further humiliation upon George W.Bush.

American now has a serious President who unlike his predecessor is not globally seen as an unintelligent joke.

Many right-wing commentators, Republicans and others believe that Mr Obama does not deserve this award because he has not achieved anything to warrant this prestigious prize.

But this award could not have come at a better time.

Fighting the health care debate back home and jeered by his opponents for Chicago not winning the Olympics, perhaps he has some political capital in the form of this prize.

If this President can not transform his widespread personal popularity into concrete policies, then who can?

I disagree with any suggestion that the “special relationship” between the United States and Britain is cooling.

Gordon Brown moved quicker than he does with most political events to say that “the special relationship has never been stronger.”

Obviously, the White House did not “snub” Gordon Brown. After all, as Lance Powell points out in his piece ‘Obama’s busy, get over it Gordon’ Mr Obama and Mr Brown already have a  good relationship, so what is the point in holding meetings just for photo opportunities.

Those who wish to think that Mr Obama is ignoring the Prime Minister’s office because of his unpopularity back home are mistaken. Both men are ideologically on the left and believe that their respective governments helped to pull the economy “back from the brink,” a term that has been used by many economists and advisers within the Obama administration. Also, both leaders seem to be singing from the same hymn sheet on issues like nuclear proliferation, climate change and that a diplomacy is the best way to deal with Iran and North Korea.

Not forgetting that Mr Obama has a wide range of domestic and international challenges ranging from selling health care reform at home to complex peace negotiations between Israel and Palestine.

If anyone wants to complain about not receiving an invite, it should be the White House.

Barack Obama has not visited Downing Street for a while.

For too long, many U.S. television networks have shyed away from consistently asking tough questions in one-to one interviews with the President of the United States.

I am a huge fan of MSNBC TV and use the site to keep up to date with American Politics on a daily basis, as well as watching Meet the Press With David Gregory, but I just feel that the interviewers sometime waste the opportunity to pressure the President more on economic issues.

I remember watching NBC Nightly News presenter Brian Williams’ series of interviews with President Obama earlier in the year, for the White House tour.

Do not get me wrong, I have a lot of respect for Brian Williams, he is a very good anchor.

But there was a constant hope within me that he would say: Mr President, how can you talk about reducing the deficit, when your $3.5 trillion budget adds more to the deficit than all your 43 predecessors? Or some real tough questions about the stimulus package.

There was even a scene when the President ordered Mr Williams a burger and fries, and conversations between both men in Obama’s presidential motorcade.

I know that many Americans love baseball, but with all the serious issues out there, whether the Red Soxs will make the play offs as David Gregory asked the President this week is the least of struggling Americans concerns.

Today is not an anniversary of sorts, but a day to continue remembering and reflecting upon the lives of the 3,017 American citizens who were cruelly taken away.

The attacks on the World Trade Centre should remind governments across the world that they should never, not one second fail to apply maximum effort in this continuing fight against terrorist organisations.

Opponents of President Barack Obama and key allies have said that he needs to seize control of the health care debate.

I was thinking about some of the best speeches that Mr Obama has made: His acceptance speech in Denver and his first address to Congress.

Some may disagree that his speech to Congress was one of his more notable speeches, but for a while Mr Obama helped to quiet down concerns about his inflated agenda and his spending plans.

Then another thought sprang to mind: When will he be addressing Congress again, or when will he deliver his State of the Union address?

Well, tonight the Washington Post have announced that Mr Obama will address Congress on health care next Wednesday. This is a massive opportunity for Mr Obama to sharpen up his tone, clear up the myths and confusions over health care, and explain the key components of the plan such as the public option. Sell it not only to the American people, but to members of Congress too.

But, I suspect that his speech may be a repeat of what he has already said at town hall meetings with just a few amendments in between.

America and I will be awaiting this with anticipation.

The phrase “the most powerful man on earth” is one that is often used to describe the President of the United States of America.

A leader of the ‘free world’. A man who receives daily intelligence briefings about the level of terrorist threat to the homeland, whose every word is analysed and scrutinised and can veto legislation that he does not want to sign, does not seem to have his button on the key issues right now.

But, I am left wondering who is really in charge in the Obama administration?

Morning Joe host Joe Scarborough rightly voiced a concern today that there is a growing trend that Mr Obama seems to be a passive President who seems to be allowing himself to be shaped by events, rather than shaping events himself.

I am very curious as to how much input a President of the United States, the commander-in-chief, the head of state for all his titles had in the formulation of the bill for the $787 economic stimulus package.

In the end, the final bill contained some concessions in exchange for Republican votes, but while I appreciate that any President has an extremely busy schedule, Capitol Hill isn’t exactly miles away from the White House, nor are there a shortage of phones around too.

Political commentators and some within the Democratic caucus are accusing the President of being “too soft” on health care.

Who is in charge at the White House? Should President Obama toughen his rhetoric and involvement in important domestic and foreign policy matters?

A USA TODAY/Gallup Poll shows that 57 per cent of Americans do not think that President Barack Obama’s $787 billion stimulus package is working.

One thing I always worried about was the continued mantra that the stimulus would create or save 3.5 million- 4 million jobs. How can you create or save that amount when between a quarter of a million and half a million jobs are becoming numbers in worsening unemployment statistics?

The stimulus package is not a disastrous bill, but where it goes wrong is that there is not enough short term focus as far as jobs are concerned.

An experienced builder may get a work working on a new bridge or a new school, but how permanent are his employment prospects once this project is over? Now to coin one of Sarah Palin’s favourite phrases, this would be a “Bridge to Nowhere.”

If you lose your job, the worst case scenario is that you want one in the next few months, not in the next two years.

My response to the recession would have been to go with a $500 billion- $600 billion stimulus focused on jobs and with no earmarks. This is easier said than done, but I would fight tooth and nail to make sure that the lawmakers in Congress were getting no presents for their state.

Then if more jobs were needed, perhaps another stimulus of around the same sum with some further incentives in it for small businesses and consumers would need to be passed to get more people into work.

At the end of the day, those who were closely associated with writing the stimulus bill have made their jobs a lot harder- The more people that were not given genuine help, will end up receiving food stamps and unemployment benefits which burns a deeper hole into the budget deficit.

I just cannot help wondering that those who worry about the federal government taking over the U.S. health care system need to ask themselves some serious questions and get real.

Maybe the federal government would not need to step in, if the so called ‘free market’, the private insurance companies were morally inclined to provide better quality, affordable and accessible coverage to ever single American- whether Hispanic, Black, Latino or White.

Well, not all insurance companies are morally inclined. They want to make huge profits.

Insurance companies who did not try to look for alternatives to Medicare and Medicaid lost their chance to stop the government having to intervene in an ever problematic situation.

The bottom line is that if insurance companies and millions of Americans do not have it within their power to get health insurance and the money to pay for it, then the legislative arena of big government is the only institution that can step in to try and fix it, or is it?

Insurance companies and private insurers come to the table with your proposals, if not, do not whinge about a big government takeover.

At around 8:55 pm yesterday evening I was delighted to hear that former President Bill Clinton had successfully negotiated the release of U.S. journalists Laura Ling and Euna Lee.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-il granted a special pardon to the women who are now returning home with Mr Clinton.

There has been reports, denied by the White House that Mr Clinton came with a message from President Obama to give to the Communist leader, but how much of a role did Mr Clinton really play?

Why was a leader who has provoked the United States, its neighbours and the rest of the international community willing to sit down and holds talks with Mr Clinton?

What are the wider implications for better relations and talks about their nuclear weapons programme? Could this make future talks between the Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and North Korean diplomats all the more likely?

Mr Clinton was recently appointed United Nations Special Envoy to Haiti. Could there be a role for him in the White House and I just wonder whether this diplomatic dream team of Bill and Hillary may still be thinking that they have what it takes to run for the White House in 2016.

What this does show is that President Clinton still has that magic, charm and persuasion. All former Presidents will be respected, irrespective of their successes or failures in office but Mr Clinton is one of few former Presidents that still has a lot of political muscles to flex on the international stage.

President Barack Obama says that the US economy has avoided being in a worst position and was offering hope to Americans for the future.

GDP figures released yesterday show that the US economy shrank by less than expected at 1% in the April-to-June quarter.