2009 Nobel Peace Prize the prize" while in "CounterPunch", political journalist Alexander Cockburn said that, in historical context of other former U.S. Presidents winning the Nobel Peace Prize, the award to Obama "represents a radical break in tradition, since he's only had slightly less than nine months to discharge his imperial duties." Peter Beinart of the Daily Beast called the decision a "farce", while Noam Chomsky said : "In defense of the committee, we might say that the achievement of doing nothing to advance peace places Obama on a considerably higher moral plane than some of the earlier recipients". Many were critical of the
2007 Nobel Peace Prize work and application." In Oslo on 10 December 2007, the presentation was made with a speech by Ole Danbolt Mjøs as Chairman of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, and followed by Nobel Lectures given by Rajendra K. Pachauri, representing the IPCC, and Al Gore. In his lecture, Pachauri thanked those contributing to the IPCC: The IPCC presented scientists who had "contributed substantially to the preparation of IPCC reports" with personalized certificates for "contributing to the award of the Nobel Peace Prize for 2007 to the IPCC". The certificates, which name the individual and feature a reproduction of the Nobel Peace Prize