Obama’s election – Disaster for Bono?

Imagine it. One day you are flying around, giving world leaders advice on how to save the planet. You pray with the President, pint it with the Prime Minister, tea with the Taoiseach and mingle with Mandela.

 

All of a sudden, there’s a new Messiah and you just can’t quite compete. Not only does he seem to know what he’s talking about, meaning that you can’t patronise him, but he’s also black. Worse still he’s African, or at least partly.

 

So he’s probably well informed when it comes to discussing his father’s homeland and their neighbours. Even if he isn’t, he has an advantage over you because he’s from there and is less likely to be dealt with with suspicion. He has an inherent understanding of the issues. These issues are in his blood.

 

So it wasn’t just John McCain who lost out the other night. But please spare a thought for Bono too who is now surely back in the world saviour dole queue and will probably have to go back to playing with that lil’ ol blues band he had before he went out preachin’ and savin’.

 

Probably just as well, the last few albums haven’t been the best.

Wall Street collapse a blessing?

In years to come, people will look back on the current global financial crisis and hopefully wonder what all the negative fuss was about. It is indeed terrible that people have lost their jobs on Wall Street and that the World economy (and not just the U.S.) is in a cadaverous state. But if the Presidency of Barack Obama fulfills even some of the promise that the man has shown over the last two years then the collapse of Lehman Brothers and everything that came with it can only be seen as a blessing. The latest blunders on Wall Street exposed the very honourable but uncomfortable Senator McCain as a ditherer and essentially sealed his political fate. Had it not been for the financial crisis the Presidential race may well have been much closer and we would not be toasting an historic victory today.