To me it feels like the Norwegians were also fanboying (and fangirling) hard over the charismatic guy. I also find him very charismatic, but hey, it doesn't influence my job and even if it does, I'm not in charge of judging who gets a globally recognized prize...
Fanboying over the promise of Obama and also over the turning away from the Bush era Project for a New American Century, which was beginning to look like a long term US plan at that point.
It looked like a promising new era and they were not the only ones swept up in that.
