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
2012 Nobel Peace Prize as well as the fact that what had started as an economic union had really had a pacifying effect. While European leaders greeted the decision, the award tended to be criticized by Eurosceptics including the far-right (such as National Front leader Marine Le Pen) and far-left. Nigel Farage, leader of the right-wing UKIP and co-chairman of the anti-EU EFD group within the European Parliament, claimed the decision brought the Nobel Peace Prize "into total disrepute" due to its "insulting" assumption that the EU has prevented conflicts. In a poll conducted in Norway by ResponsAnalyse for the newspaper "Aftenposten", 26% of