Conservatives reacted with shock and disdain to President Obama's Nobel prize, and some attacked his speech on Afghanistan before he even delivered it. But now many on the right are lauding Obama's lecture in Oslo defending the use of American power.
In an interview with USA Today, former Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin suggested the speech could have come from her mouth.
Palin praised President Obama for the speech he gave Thursday to accept the Nobel Peace Prize. She said the president's defense of war to combat evil could have been taken from the pages of her memoirs.
"Wow, that really sounded familiar," said Palin, a frequent Obama critic. "I talked, too, in my book about the fallen nature of man and why war is necessary at times."
Former House majority leader Newt Gingrich told WNYC the speech was "actually very good."
"He clearly understood that he had been given the prize prematurely, but he used it as an occasion to remind people, first of all, as he said: that there is evil in the world ... I thought in some ways it's a very historic speech."
A spokesperson for House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) added, "As President Reagan said, Republicans believe in peace through strength, and we were pleased that today President Obama addressed and defended our mission in Afghanistan, where success is the only option."
Erick Erickson, the conservative founder of RedState.com, wrote, "I was surprised by Obama's speech. Parts sounded like full throated support for the Bush doctrine."
Rory Cooper, the director of strategic communications for the Heritage Foundation, said: "It was a speech that defended America's pursuit of liberty and freedom, and defended our global leadership and military might."
Of course, as historian Michael Kazin pointed out to McClatchy, Obama was speaking not specifically of fighting America's enemies but of fighting injustice. And, as blogger Spencer Ackerman points out, the president was never the pacifist that many on the right seem to think he was.