President Obama was honored with the Nobel Prize for Peace today, here’s why he should have declined it.

In declining the award, pointing to worthy organizations that have actually accomplished much, like the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the President would have appeared disarmingly magnanimous on the world stage and instantly deflated those who accuse him of naivete and disproportionate egoism. He could have claimed a great victory, a legitimate one, at the expense of his growing chorus of critics.

In accepting the award the President is forced to acknowledge that none of his initiatives have yielded results, except hosting a peace summit between a cop and a professor, as we close his first year in office.

I am both surprised and deeply humbled by the decision of the Nobel Committee. Let me be clear: I do not view it as a recognition of my own accomplishments, but rather as an affirmation of American leadership on behalf of aspirations held by people in all nations.

When the best you and your supporters can say is “well it’s being awarded not for accomplishment but as encouragement” you know you have a growing confidence problem.