Well, the Europeans who hated President George W. Bush and his cowboy mentality and unilateralism in Iraq and elsewhere, now seem to be leaping overboard in anointing his successor for sainthood before he has served a full year in office.

Sentiments of an "Old Europe," as former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld sneeringly called it, may have had something to do with the decision to award President Barack Obama the Nobel Peace Prize. After all, nominations for the honor closed on February 1, less than two weeks after he took office.

The reasoning here? That Mr. Obama has calmed a tense world climate provoked by a blustering Mr. Bush by favoring dialogue and negotiation -- even though he actually hasn't done much except signal that he would work for change. There may have been no one who deserved the prize more this year, but it seems there must have been someone. It should be based on achievement -- usually a major or lifetime achievement, and typically it has been.

Among Americans, former President Jimmy Carter won in 2002 for his humanitarian efforts and work to defuse conflicts around the world; President Woodrow Wilson won in 1919 for working to found the League of Nations, and former Vice President Al Gore won in 2005 for focusing the world's attention on the threat of global warming.

Many around the globe believe Mr. Obama has done much by philosophically bringing the United States more into tune with the modern era than Mr. Bush. But

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this award comes across more as a last swipe at the former president and his Cowboy America -- delivered after the bell has sounded on his administration.

The Nobel Committee has done Mr. Obama dubious good in his own country, coming across as the enlightened continent showing the New Worlders how to act with some tough parental love. As it is, Mr. Obama will have a hard time delivering on his promise, and his many promises, without being tagged at home as pro-European/unAmerican.

Appearing too closely tied to Europe, or to one European nation or other, has been a political liability in this country going back to the days of George Washington's presidential administration.

It is nice to know that America is less hated in the world these days, but perhaps the world should temper its applause until we've proven we are all the way back