The election of Barack Obama as President of the United States is a huge breakthrough in American history. He is revered by the majority of the world, so much that he can now add a Nobel Peace Prize to his resume, leaving many people, both supporters and opponents, asking if he really deserves the prize after a mere nine months in office.

The selection committee in Norway cited their reasons for the choice of Obama based on his potential rather than what he has actually accomplished. They applaud his willingness to talk about issues like climate control and nuclear disarmament and argue that he has begun to lesson tensions around the world, particularly the Middle East.

While Obama may one day achieve these accomplishments, the fact is that he has yet to do so. There simply has not been enough time to tell how his policies will affect the world in the future, and certainly not after two weeks in office — when he was initially nominated.

Obama is now listed with the likes of Theodore Roosevelt, Martin Luther King, Jr., Mother Teresa, Nelson Mandela, and Jimmy Carter, all monumental in the pusuit of peace.

While there were most likely nominees more deserving of the honor—namely people who have had the opportunity to accomplish something tangible—the Nobel committee does not release the names of the nominees for fifty years.

At the risk of sounding cliché, just to be nominated is an honor. Those nominees should be recognized for their achievements, not kept secret so the selection committee—which has already come under fire for their dubious selection—does not have to explain why they picked Obama over other candidates.

This is not the first time that the  Nobel Peace Prize committee has made a mistake in the selection process. Ghandi was nominated five times for the award, but never recieved it. If someone like Ghandi, an obvious ringer for the award, who went through years of struggle  without violence to gain India’s indepence from Great Britain,  was denied the honor, then why should someone who hasn’t yet yielded any real results win the prestigious award?

Not to say that Obama couldn’t earn this award further down the road, but the selection committee jumped the gun and should have waited to let the President do his job.