It is a peace prize created by a guy who invented "Dynamite", as a way to compensate for developing destructive forces. Rightfully (because it was in the name of a fellow who created destructive tools), Mahatma *hi never deserved to get it inspite of inspiring many leaders like Martin Luther King, Nelson Mandela & now 2009 Nobel peace prize winner Barack Obama.
Barack Obama deserved to win this prize "for inspiring hope towards peace". Not for actually achieving peace. But for inspiring hope towards peace, by making gestures that America is willing to move away from Bush's methods. That is the only achievement Barack Obama had. To take America away from Bush's methods. That is what "inspiring hope towards peace". This is parallel to what Nobel did. Create destructive forces and then create a prize to "inspire hope towards peace".
Following from Wikipedia:
Nobel died in 1896 and did not leave an explanation for choosing peace as a prize category. The categories for chemistry and physics were obvious choices as he was a trained chemical engineer. The reason behind the peace prize is less clear. Scholars who studied Nobel have said it was Nobel's way to compensate for developing destructive forces (Nobel's inventions included dynamite and ballistite). None of his explosives, except for ballistite, were used in any war during his lifetime,[3] although the Irish Republican Brotherhood, an Irish nationalist organization, did carry out dynamite attacks in the 1880s[4] and he was instrumental in turning Bofors from an iron company to an armaments company whilst he owned it.
The Committee has confirmed that *hi was nominated in 1937, 1938, 1939, 1947 and, finally, a few days before he was murdered in January 1948.[17] The omission has been publicly regretted by later members of the Nobel Committee.[15] In 1948, the year of *hi's death, the Nobel Committee declined to award a prize on the ground that "there was no suitable living candidate" that year. Later, when the Dalai Lama was awarded the Peace Prize in 1989, the chairman of the committee said that this was "in part a tribute to the memory of Mahatma *hi".[18]