About 90 minutes after the announcement that President Obama had won the Nobel Peace Prize, RedState blogger and editor-in-chief Erick Erickson said he was picked because of affirmative action:

Barack Obama Wins Nobel Peace Prize: He’s Becoming Jimmy Carter Faster Than Jimmy Carter Did. I did not realize the Nobel Peace Prize had an affirmative action quota for it, but that is the only thing I can think of for this news. There is no way Barack Obama earned it in the nominations period.

The blowback has been speedy and harsh:

• Mike Madden: "Yeah, Erick, otherwise you'd have won."

• Teresa Kopec: "Red State plays race card on cue."

• Kopec, responding to criticism that liberals ridicule the right: "Yup because of asshats like [Erickson]"

• Adam Serwer: "Erick Erickson wins the wingnut 'obama won the nobel cuz of affirmative action' prize"

• Madden sums up the opposition to Obama's prize: "The Taliban, Hamas and RedState.com."

• Brian Beutler: "It's almost as if [Erickson] doesn't realize there are whole continents of people that aren't majority white."

• Oliver Willis: "Thanks again to racists like [Erickson] for demonstrating why minorities and whites w brains run don't walk away from the right + GOP"

• Media Matters: "RedState's Erickson smears Obama's Nobel Peace Prize"

Erickson was not the only pundit to deride Obama's win. Many liberals agreed that it's a stretch. What did Erickson have to say in his defense? He scoffed, "OMG I made an affirmative action joke. I guess I'll never win the Nobel Peace Prize."

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