An award Al Gore hasn’t won

Jimmy Carter did it. Hillary Rodham Clinton and Bill Clinton did too. And now Barack Obama has become part of a long-standing political tradition: He snared a Grammy.

Obama won his prize Sunday for the audio recording of his book “The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream.� It’s an honor that has been fairly regularly bestowed on Democratic politicians. Bill Clinton has snagged two Grammys, and his wife and Obama rival Hillary, won the same spoken-word award 12 years ago for her audiobook “It Takes a Village.�

What’s more, among the candidates who were in the running for the prize this year along with Obama were, once again, Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter.

But Obama’s honor didn’t impress Alex Conant, a spokesman for the Republican National Committee. “I imagine Obama’s Grammy will look nice on the mantle next to his ‘most liberal senator’ award,� he said.

-- Andrew Malcolm