Although the award of the Nobel peace prize to President Barack Obama was widely interpreted as a repudiation of the Republican era of George W Bush, the real snub may have been to Bill Clinton.

The former Democratic president is widely held to be overdue for the prize. He helped to promote peace in Northern Ireland and devoted more time to achieving a Middle East deal than any other president, although the effort was unsuccessful.

Since leaving the White House he has created the Clinton Global Initiative to combat problems from Aids to global warming, worked hard on good causes and is the United Nations special envoy to Haiti.

In August he flew to North Korea, held talks with its leader, Kim Jong-il, and secured the release of two jailed American journalists, Laura Ling and Euna Lee.

Yet the Nobel committee has overlooked him despite having given the prize to three other Democratic politicians — President Jimmy Carter (in 2002), Al Gore (Clinton’s vice-president, in 2007) and now Obama.

While Hillary Clinton, the secretary of state, congratulated her boss personally, the usual garrulous Bill Clinton was silent. In Washington the speculation is that the politically correct Nobel committee cannot forgive him his affair with Monica Lewinsky, the White House intern.

The first the White House knew of the award was an e-mail at 5.09am on Friday with the subject line “item of interest”. At first aides thought it was a joke.

The president himself was woken at 6am with the news. It was not “how I expected to wake up”, he said later, adding that his daughter Malia had brought him down to earth by reminding him it was the birthday of Bo, their dog.

The prize brings with it enormous expectations. The Nobel committee said he had “created a new climate in international politics”. Yet even his supporters admit Obama has yet to achieve the goals he has set himself, ranging from Middle East peace to closing Guantanamo.

A senior general involved in Afghanistan planning was aghast, saying the prize would make it harder for Obama to send the extra troops the army has requested.

Times Recommends

• 'New York has lost its edge'
• Copenhagen will fail – and quite right too
• More than 17,000 new underwater species found