As an American, I suppose I should thank the Norwegians for awarding the Nobel Peace Prize to my president.

And as an observer of the political process, I do thank them for making conservatives go so entertainingly berserk.

But as a parent, I can't help thinking this weirdly premature honor undercuts some of the basic lessons that responsible adults try to teach their offspring.

Life is not a popularity contest, we tell them as they're growing up. And when they don't follow through on something, we say: You don't get points for good intentions; you have to act on them.

OK, so we lie on the first one. Life really is a popularity contest in many ways, but sometimes the contest rewards too many of the wrong things (like personality over ability or money over character) and we don't want them buying into that social construct. Unless, of course, we were popular ourselves, which I know for a fact I was not because an eighth-grade teacher told me so.

Now, it turns out we've been lying on the second point, too. Apparently, it is possible to get points for good intentions if you're popular. In fact, the road to Oslo is paved with them.

This is not a slap at Barack Obama, who never sought the prize and said straight out that he didn't feel he deserved it compared to others who have worked longer and accomplished more in the quest for peace (whatever "peace" means to a body that once gave the prize to Henry Kissinger but ignored Mohandas Gandhi).

But I still wish the president had declined the honor, which made the Nobel committee look like an over-eager suitor.

"It's not that I don't love the award, but I'm not in love with it," he could have said. "I'm flattered by the attention, but I'm just not ready for a lifetime commitment. I need some time to get out there and make my mark. Let's see how it goes and talk about it again in a few years. I hope we can still be friends."

That would have cleared the way for a worthier recipient and his/her cause to get some world-wide attention. Someone, for example, like Dr. Izzeldin al-Aish, a Palestinian obstetrician, public health expert and longtime peace activist who continues to promote joint Israeli-Palestinian projects even after his three daughters and a niece were killed in their Gaza home by an Israeli shell in January. Or Judea Pearl, the Israeli-born father of slain Wall Street Journal reporter Danny Pearl, who founded the Daniel Pearl Dialogue for Muslim-Jewish Understanding after his son was beheaded by al-Qaida terrorists in Karachi, Pakistan.

Declining the prize also would have been a great lesson for the president's daughters -- and the Obamas seem like terrific parents -- on the difference between intention and achievement.

But he didn't -- and in all fairness, not many would have. Now there's no going back.

The announcement not only brought predictable outrage from the right, which sees the president as the anti-Christ in a suit. It also prompted snarky remarks from the left, which wants a leader loaded for bear but seems to think the president is carrying a pop gun instead. Even the folks in the middle had trouble figuring this one out.

The committee seems to be rewarding Mr. Obama essentially for not being his predecessor, which is a measure of how far the country's stature dropped under George W. Bush. Plus, this choice gave the Norwegians a chance to vote for Mr. Obama since they weren't allowed to in last year's U.S. presidential election.

They must have thought the gold medal would help him by raising his status on the world stage. But they didn't do him any favors on the home front by jumping the gun.

In case they hadn't noticed, the administration is neck deep in negotiations over health-care reform. A lot of people think the president has been too timid on the public option and too deferential to an opposition that would rather slit its own throat than help him pass a key initiative. The last thing they want is more peace-seeking with Republicans who've sworn to block him at every turn.

Then there's the other Big Muddy that Mr. Obama's administration inherited, in the form of two wars with no peace on the horizon, while the nation's spread sheet looks like a Jackson Pollock painting.

Mr. Obama didn't make this mess, but it's his mess now. He also didn't need the distraction of a precipitous prize being used against him through no fault of his own.

It would be great for the country and for him if his efforts bear fruit and he winds up deserving the Nobel Peace Prize. Meanwhile, as an American and a parent, prize or no prize, I have to say I'd rather have a president working hard on good intentions than on bad ones.

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