More than 14,000km away in Dunedin, respected United States peace advocate Dr David Cortright was far more supportive, saying while he and others did not agree with Mr Obama's decision to send more troops to Afghanistan, Mr Obama's progressive thinking on peace strategies meant he deserved the medal.
"I think the Nobel committee was right to recognise what a dramatic step forward his election was for the US and for the world. He has dramatically changed American policy.
"He is working with the United Nations on peacekeeping, on sanctions issues, on the peace-building commission, and on human rights policy.
"He has consciously reached out to the Muslim world and tried to build a bridge between these differences and animosities which have built up.
"He has committed the US to reducing and eliminating nuclear weapons. That is profoundly important for the peace movement and unprecedented for an American president."
Dr Cortright, who is one of the guest speakers at a peace conference at the University of Otago, is director of policy studies at the Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies at the University of Notre Dame, in Indiana.
He became a vocal opponent of war while serving for three years in the US army during the Vietnam conflict.
He was never deployed to Vietnam, something he puts down to his outspokenness on the issue.
In the years since, he has lectured, written 15 books and provided peace research services to several foreign governments and UN agencies.
While the difference between Mr Obama and his predecessor George Bush was "night and day", Dr Cortright said peace advocates believed Mr Obama's stance on Afghanistan was wrong and wanted him to stick to his promises and begin withdrawing troops by the middle of 2011.
"Some security forces are definitely needed there and our position is not for immediate withdrawal. But I also doubt a war strategy is ultimately going to win. We favour a humanitarian surge, rather than a military surge."
