Is it too early?

As I'm sure you've all read/seen/hear, President Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize today. This is a great accomplishment, no matter what you think of the man, but, like many people around the world, I have to wonder...is it too early?

I mean, the man has been on office about a year, but, as far as I know he hasn't really done anything to foster peace (or war)...at least not enough to justify winning the award. It could be that he was the best candidate for it, though. In which case...this is a sad world we live in that no one else tries to foster peace anymore.

My thought is that they gave it to him as a way to increase public exposure. Seriously, if you were to ask any Joe on the street to name 5 previous winners. They may get lucky and say Carter or Clinton...you know the winners that are well known, but for the most part, no one knows who wins that thing, myself included. Having arguably the most visible president win it, brigs instant exposure.

Some critics are saying that this is going to ultimately hurt his presidency. I don't see how it could that. If anything does that, it'll be these policies that no one can agree on, but I do think it is a bit premature to give him such a prestigious award, but I do applaud him.