Obama's Nobel Gesture

The White House has released a full list of President Obama's Nobel prize money donation charities, and it's a pretty worthy one.

Applying the motto that charity begins at home, Mr. Obama put Fisher House, an organization that provides housing for the families of American veterans, at the top of the list, with $250,000. Fisher House was followed by the Clinton-Bush Haiti Fund, the project his two immediate predecessors are running to raise money for relief and reconstruction efforts in Haiti ($200,000).

White House officials said that the money would go directly from the Nobel Committee to the recipient charities. It is to be released in the next few days. Mr. Obama promised that he would give his prize money to charity last fall, when the Nobel Committee stunned the world with its choice of Mr. Obama for the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize less than nine months into his presidency.

Republicans quickly contended that Mr. Obama won more for his star power and oratorical skills than for his actual achievements, and even some Democrats privately questioned whether he deserved it. Mr. Obama, himself, maintained that he did “not feel that I deserve to be in the company of so many of the transformative figures who have been honored by this prize.”

Other charities receiving some of Mr. Obama’s prize money include the Posse Foundation, which tries to help nontraditional high school students get into college, The United Negro College Fund, the Hispanic Scholarship Fund, the Appalachian Leadership and Education Foundation, the American Indian College Fund, AfriCare and the Central Asia Institute, which promotes girls’ education in Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Wingers have been attacking Obama on this for months now, with armchair lawyers saying everything from he reneged on yet another promise all the way up to it being an impeachable offense because Congress did not consent to the money(?!?).

But that's the way they roll.