Axelrod: Peace prize an 'affirmation' of Obama's int'l priorities

The Nobel Peace Prize awarded this morning serves as an "affirmation" of President Barack Obama's international priorities, senior adviser David Axelrod said Friday.

Axelrod said that while the award, handed down this morning, was nothing Obama had sought or expected, the White House accepts it as an "honor."

"He's less interested in individual honors -- and this certainly is one -- than in advancing the causes that were cited by the Nobel Committee," Axelrod said during a call into "Morning Joe" on MSNBC. "I think it's an affirmation on the part of the Nobel Committee that the things that he's been working on and has been talking about around the world in the last nine months and before are important and significant. "

The prize for the president has been seen as a surprise by pundits this morning. Obama himself will make remarks about having received the honor at the White House at 10:30 this morning.

Axelrod played down the notion that the award was set up as a rebuke to former President George W. Bush, as well as the unusual nature of a president having won the prize during his first year in office.

"I don't have any knowledge of the politics or the thinking behind these decisions," Axelrod said. "I read the citation, and I accept the citation for what it is."

"Yes, it's unusual, but there are a lot of unusual things that have happened over the past few years," Obama's adviser added.