By Matthew Schofield, Kansas City Star editorial board columnist

So, Barack Obama, nine months into his presidency, has won the Nobel Peace Prize.

Does he deserve it?

The obvious answer is yes.

He won it, after all. And while others can certainly question whether the voters should have gone with a U.S. President only months into a first term, the only folks whose opinions count on the question of what is deserving are the voters.

But it does raise eyebrows. Barack Obama is now listed among past winners of the world's most prestigious award: Nelson Mandela, Elie Wiesel, Desmond Tutu, Mother Teresa, Martin Luther King Jr., Lech Walesa. It's a long list (and surprisingly doesn't include, say, Gandhi).

But the prize is only sometimes given out for accomplishments. It is also sometimes given out to provide strength to an argument.

This seems to be a time it was given out because of hope. Obama, to date, has not earned a peace prize. But, the belief seems to be, he brings hope for peace, on many fronts, in years to come.

And, sometimes, hope is worth rewarding.

A full list of past U.S. winners, btw, from the Nobel Prize website:

2009

BARACK OBAMA for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples.

2007

INTERGOVERNMENTAL PANEL ON CLIMATE CHANGE (IPCC) and ALBERT ARNOLD ( AL) GORE JR. for their efforts to build up and disseminate greater knowledge about man-made climate change, and to lay the foundations for the measures that are needed to counteract such change.

2002

JIMMY CARTER JR., former President of the United States of America,
for his decades of untiring effort to find peaceful solutions to international conflicts, to advance democracy and human rights, and to promote economic and social development

1997

Awarded jointly including JODY WILLIAMS for their work for the banning and clearing of anti-personnel mines.

1988

THE UNITED NATIONS PEACE-KEEPING FORCES New York, NY, U.S.A.

1986

ELIE WIESEL , U.S.A., Chairman of ’The President’s Commission on the Holocaust’. Author, humanitarian.

1985

INTERNATIONAL PHYSICIANS FOR THE PREVENTION OF NUCLEAR WAR Boston, MA, U.S.A.

1973

Awarded jointly, including HENRY A. KISSINGER , Secretary of State, State Department, Washington.

1970
NORMAN BORLAUG , Led research at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center, Mexico City.

1965

UNITED NATIONS CHILDREN’S FUND (UNICEF) New York, founded by U.N. in 1946. An international aid organization.

1964

MARTIN LUTHER KING JR., leader of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, campaigner for civil rights.

1962

LINUS CARL PAULING, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA. Campaigner especially for an end to nuclear weapons tests.

1950

RALPH BUNCHE, Professor Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, Director of the UN Division of Trusteeship, Acting Mediator in Palestine

1947

Awarded jointly, including: THE AMERICAN FRIENDS SERVICE COMMITTEE (The Quakers), Washington. The society’s first official meeting was held in 1672.

1946

Divided equally between:
EMILY GREENE BALCH, former Professor of History and Sociology, Honorary International President Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom.

JOHN RALEIGH MOTT Chairman of the first International Missionary Council, President of the World Alliance of Young Men’s Christian Associations .

1945

CORDELL HULL Former Secretary of State. One of the initiators of the United Nations.

1931

Divided equally between:

JANE ADDAMS Sociologist. International President of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom.

NICHOLAS MURRAY BUTLER President of Columbia University. Promoter of the Briand-Kellogg Pact.

1929

FRANK BILLINGS KELLOGG Former Secretary of State, Negotiated the Briand-Kellogg Pact.

1925 (shared)

CHARLES GATES DAWES Vice-President of the United States of America. Chairman of the Allied Reparation Commission. Originator of the Dawes Plan .

1919

THOMAS WOODROW WILSON, President of the United States of America. Founder of the Société des Nations (League of Nations)

1912

ELIHU ROOT Former Secretary of State. Initiator of several arbitration agreements.

1906

THEODORE ROOSEVELT, USA. President of the United States of America. Drew up the 1905 peace treaty between Russia and Japan.