Mahatma Gandhi and Barack Obama

Our President, Barack Obama, won the Nobel Peace Prize the first time he was nominated for it. Some Americans feel that he did not deserve the award and other Americans feel that he did deserve it. I voted for Obama, but I do not feel that he deserved the prize based on anything that he had accomplished before he became President. However, Mahatma Gandhi the Indian champion of non violence and  seeker of Indian independence from Great Britain was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize on five occasions between 1937 and 1948 and never won it ! That seems to me like a travesty considering the effect that Gandhi, his teaching and fervent promotion of non violence have had on recent world history. Am I missing something here ?