Peace Prize for W?

Peter Schramm at No Left Turns asks:

What are the chances that President Bush will receive the Nobel Peace Prize before he leaves office? I think the chances are very much in his favor. In fact, I’ll go so far as to say that unless an unseen catastrophe happens in the region, he will receive the Prize. I don’t say this because I think it is important that W. get the prize so that he may be in the company of Kofi Annan (2001), Jimmy Carter (2002), or Shirin Ebadi (2003), but because I look forward to the time when even the international Left will be forced to recognize his accomplishments.

While I think the international left will recognize Bush's accomplishments sooner than the American left, I don't think he'll be getting that prize. Certainly not before he leaves office. Even if things in Iraq improve at an exponential rate, and democracy spreads across the region, the committee won't admit an accomplishment before 2009. They'll probably say "Too soon to draw conclusions" for the next two decades no matter how peachy things get.

I may be proven wrong, and yes, it'd be nice to see W. get the nod. But so did Arafat. So what does the prize mean?

(Hat tip: What Attitude Problem)