2009 Nobel Peace Prize committee feared being labeled naïve for accepting a young politician's promises at face value", stating that "no one could deny that 'the international climate' had suddenly improved, and that Mr. Obama was the main reason...'We want to embrace the message that he stands for." Obama was the fourth U.S. President to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, after Theodore Roosevelt (1906) and Woodrow Wilson (1919)—both of whom received the award during their terms—and Jimmy Carter (2002), who received the award 21 years after leaving office. In addition, then-sitting Vice President Charles Dawes was a co-winner with Austen Chamberlain (1925), and
2012 Nobel Peace Prize respondents agreed with the decision to award the European Union the prize, while 37% opposed it and a further 37% had no opinion. The director of the Norwegian Nobel Institute, Geir Lundestad described the results of the poll as "... more positive than he had expected" on the background of the "... negative attitude to the EU" in Norway. Lundestad stated that the award was not about Norwegian membership in the EU, but a "wider perspective". On 30 November 2012, Nobel Peace Prize winners Desmond Tutu, Mairead Maguire and Adolfo Pérez Esquivel publicly opposed the awarding of the prize to