We've had a day to absorb it. Obama has been chosen as the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize recipient, a tremendous honor underscoring the world's embrace of America and our values.

It won't change the president's focus on day-to-day challenges. Nor should it. He has a mile-long to-do list - at the top of that list prominently sits healthcare reform, the economy and getting us out of Iraq and Afghanistan. No one should pretend nothing has been done on these fronts, but we all know plenty more needs to be done.

Nonetheless, President Obama now rightfully stands in the company of Nobel luminaries like Lech Walesa, Nelson Mandela, Desmond Tutu. Here's a complete list of past recipients of the peace prize. It is a sensitive yet familiar moment for our president. When he was in the Illinois Legislature he was chided for daring to look toward the U.S. Senate. Once in the Senate, he was lambasted for thinking he could be president. Obama's audacity has ticked off people from Day One. It won't stop.

Some argue he doesn't deserve the Nobel. I think it depends on how you view the award. Here's how the Nobel committee views it. This is how I view it: Strength, courage and the ability to reshape a portion of the world can look differently depending on your viewpoint. Obama didn't spend his life in jail like Mandela, he didn't spur labor uprisings like Walesa, thankfully those days are over in our country. But Obama's push for change, if it succeeds, will be seismic nonetheless.

None of this will quiet today's furor. Some Americans thought the Nobel Prizes went downhill when novelist Toni Morrison received one for literature.

My colleague, Bruce Ramsey and I squared off recently over criticism toward Obama and whether it represented more than the usual amount aimed at a president.

A new book, "In the President's Secret Service," estimates a 400 percent increase in death threats against Obama than against his predecessor, President G.W. Bush. I find this alarming, not because an increase in death threats equals an increase in danger - that is not always the case - but rather I'm wondering why some of the public discourse is being translated into threats against the president's life. Why is that?

If the anger against Obama is so normal, where was this level of vitriol against Bush who ticked off liberals as much as Obama ticks of conservatives. I agree that if Obama can't stand the heat he should get out of the kitchen, but I also believe that there is more to criticism of him than just his policies. When you add race to politics we don't agree with, you get a combustible mix. Today's reaction to Obama getting the Nobel underscores this.