Bono: Obama's Nobel Prize Was the World Saying 'Don't Blow It'

In Sunday's installment in his series of occasional columns for the New York Times, U2's lead singer wrote that the Nobel Peace Prize represented the world's hopeful fantasy about Barack Obama -- one that could come true. Bono cheered Obama's embrace of the Millennium Development Goals, a U.N. agreement that aims to improve global quality of life. He said such support signals major progress for the United States and suggests that Obama deserved the "aspirational" award.

"Many have spoken about the need for a rebranding of America," Bono wrote. "Rebrand, restart, reboot. In my view [Obama's promotion of the Development Goals], alongside the administration's approach to fighting nuclear proliferation and climate change, improving relations in the Middle East and, by the way, creating jobs and providing health care at home, are rebranding in action."

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In his typical grammatically maddening style, dotted with ellipses and the occasional sentence fragment, Bono waxed eloquent about the "idea of America" and the role it plays in global inspiration. He called the president's words a "lifeline" for parts of the world that look to America for hope.

"The idea of America, from the very start, was supposed to be contagious enough to sweep up and enthrall the world .... And it is. The world wants to believe in America again because the world needs to believe in America again. We need your ideas -- your idea -- at a time when the rest of the world is running out of them."

Bono also praised former president George W. Bush for fighting AIDS in Africa and said he hoped Obama's Nobel Prize would inspire him to live up to his promises. "The Nobel Peace Prize is the rest of the world saying, 'Don't blow it.' "


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