One of the sad/ridiculous/poignant things about this is that the Peace Prize is something Obama could have aspired to in the later years of his presidency, or even afterward. Now, here he is at 48 years old, being awarded this incredibly prestigious prize for goals he has yet to accomplish.

—Dana Goldstein

Dana Goldstein, a former associate editor and writer at the Prospect, comes from a family of public-school educators. She received the Spencer Fellowship in Education Journalism, a Schwarz Fellowship at the New America Foundation, and a Puffin Foundation Writing Fellowship at the Nation Institute. Her journalism is regularly featured in Slate, The Atlantic, The Nation, The Daily Beast, and other publications, and she is a staff writer at the Marshall Project.