Star One Smart Blog's

Because the U.S. Constitution forbids you to accept it.

Article I, Section 9, of the Constitution, the emolument clause, clearly stipulates: "And no Person holding any Office of Profit or Trust under them, shall, without the Consent of the Congress, accept of any present, Emolument, Office, or Title, of any kind whatever, from any King, Prince or foreign State."

The award of the peace prize to a sitting president is not unprecedented. But Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson received the honor for their past actions: Roosevelt's efforts to end the Russo-Japanese War, and Wilson's work in establishing the League of Nations. Obama's award is different. It is intended to affect future action. As a member of the Nobel Committee explained, the prize should encourage Obama to meet his goal of nuclear disarmament. It raises important legal questions for the second time in less than 10 months -- questions not discussed, much less adequately addressed anywhere else.

The five-member Nobel commission is elected by the Storting, the parliament of Norway. Thus the award of the peace prize is made by a body representing the legislature of a sovereign foreign state. There is no doubt that the Nobel Peace Prize is an "emolument" ("gain from employment or position," according to Webster).[emboldening mine -ed.]

So, giving BHO an award for deeds he hasn't yet committed does seem to be a yoke around his neck, a controlling influence, a preemptive feint within a feint within a feint; a (as I've said before) trap designed to snare a monstrously inflated ego. "I'll have my bauble, and eat it too!"

So, Mr. President, Mr. Harvard Law Professor what edited the Harvard Law Review, please to pick up the Constitution and read it for yourself. Spend some time studying the thing, and not with an eye as to how to change it to suit your far-Lefty Progressive desires. Study it as a limiting framework designed to curb your (and any elected official's) tendency to overreach, because that's exactly the intent that the founders wrote in to it; to limit the powers of the people who are elected to serve as our nation's representatives, and to delineate the framework under which they (and you) can accept barely-concealed bribes.

Oh, and remember, your Oath of Office? That's really binding, you know.

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h/t Liz Blaine