NPR Oct 10/2009  President Obama's stunning Nobel Peace Prize win may help solidify his international reputation and cement the prize committee's clear desire to repudiate former President George W. Bush. Back home, however, where the president is grappling with near-record unemployment, an epic health care struggle and wars on two fronts, the honor was, at best, a mixed blessing.                                                                                                                                                                    Even those who generally support Obama say it carries more than a dollop of political peril. "It seems so inappropriate, so premature, that it gives sustenance to critics who say he's a celebrity honored for his existence and aspirations, not for his accomplishments," says Thomas Mann of the Brookings Institution. "With friends like the prize committee," Mann says, "who needs enemies?"

Should Obama be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize? Should he accept it? The talk shows are voting. But the question at the center of this debate is already voted. The Peace prize is for those who have already put their lives and/or political capital at risk for peace. To paraphrase the Nobel committee, Obama received the honor for steering the World toward peace. But will he put his political capital at risk to bring peace to the Middle East? How tough will he be on the nuclear arms control issue? To quote the pundits, will the peace prize turn out to be unmerited?

All said, those who understand Self-building know that people who move forward to improve themselves are neither rooted in their past record, nor bogged in their present culture. Instead they use today's confrontations to help themselves and others towards a better and more peaceful future. Should we give President Obama a chance to prove that he merits the Nobel Peace Prize? Yes, by all means. Let us wait to judge him at the end of his term not at its beginning. After all, this is how we would like to be judged ourselves.