Niamh_Saoirse
Rock n' Roll Doggie FOB
Sunday Independent
March 20th, 2005
ALI Hewson has refused to rule out her husband running for president. Clearly she is unaware of the boulevard of broken dreams that the presidential campaign has become for soubriqueted Irish pop singers with God complexes.
To be fair, Ali's refusal to rule out a presidential stint was more of a refusal to rule anything out: "I don't really know. He's a work in progress. When I first met him at school, I never thought we'd be here, so God knows where we'll end up in 10 years' time." She must look at him out of the corner of her eye now and again though and anxiously wonder whether it could be Tibet.
The star's wife did, however, deny that she had been invited to run for president. "I was never approached. I'm interested in Irish politics, but I am not interested in working in politics." An attitude itself reminiscent of
the gentlemen Fine Gael TDs of yore.
Personally, I would be delighted if either of the Hewsons stood for president - although we would have to be careful to warn the Americans in advance, lest the news that we had elected a President Ali had them revving up the B52s to bomb Dublin for giving into Muslim extremism.
A President Bono might be a bit of a laugh too. Admittedly, we don't really know where he stands on anything bar Third World debt relief and the opening up of Croke Park (for, at least when the biggest band in the world are gigging), but who better than a rock star to carry out set-piece ceremonial functions. He could even play his own presidential salute on electric guitar before throwing it to Ali and going out to greet the teams at Lansdowne.
Indeed, given the number of songs that the IRFU now insists on playing before international rugby matches, his candidature alone could free up the army number one band for two months' aid work in Somalia every February and March.
Undeniably though, the track record of celebrities-turned-politicians is mixed. Jesse "The Body" Ventura was an extremely unpopular governor of Minnesota after a career as an extremely popular wrestler - the ability to pull off a half-Nelson perhaps providing a bum steer as to his leadership qualities. Ronald Reagan was a much-loved president whose administration funded nun-killing Contras in Nicaragua out of secret deals with Ayatollah Khomeini's regime in Iran. Vaclav Havel did a pretty decent job, but there is no hiding the fact that when you start out as President of Czechoslovakia and finish up as President of the Czech Republic, things haven't all been plain sailing.
Bono, who has joked in the past - at least it might have been a joke - that he didn't want to move to a smaller house, has been mentioned in connection with so many jobs recently that one is reminded of the time Jimmy Carter told his mother Lillian that he was running for president, to which she replied, "How lovely, president of what, dear?"
The rumours that the star was in line for President of the World Bank were, however, dashed when Donald Rumsfeld's even more hawkish deputy, Paul Wolfowitz, the co-architect of the Iraqi invasion, was nominated for that position on Wednesday. At least Bono can console himself that it wasn't the funny name which stopped him getting the job.
As Ali herself said though, nobody can tell what will happen in 10 years' time. It is, after all, not so long ago that Ronan Keating was being semi-seriously discussed as a potential president. As things stand, he would be lucky to get more votes than Mikey.
John Smith
March 20th, 2005
ALI Hewson has refused to rule out her husband running for president. Clearly she is unaware of the boulevard of broken dreams that the presidential campaign has become for soubriqueted Irish pop singers with God complexes.
To be fair, Ali's refusal to rule out a presidential stint was more of a refusal to rule anything out: "I don't really know. He's a work in progress. When I first met him at school, I never thought we'd be here, so God knows where we'll end up in 10 years' time." She must look at him out of the corner of her eye now and again though and anxiously wonder whether it could be Tibet.
The star's wife did, however, deny that she had been invited to run for president. "I was never approached. I'm interested in Irish politics, but I am not interested in working in politics." An attitude itself reminiscent of
the gentlemen Fine Gael TDs of yore.
Personally, I would be delighted if either of the Hewsons stood for president - although we would have to be careful to warn the Americans in advance, lest the news that we had elected a President Ali had them revving up the B52s to bomb Dublin for giving into Muslim extremism.
A President Bono might be a bit of a laugh too. Admittedly, we don't really know where he stands on anything bar Third World debt relief and the opening up of Croke Park (for, at least when the biggest band in the world are gigging), but who better than a rock star to carry out set-piece ceremonial functions. He could even play his own presidential salute on electric guitar before throwing it to Ali and going out to greet the teams at Lansdowne.
Indeed, given the number of songs that the IRFU now insists on playing before international rugby matches, his candidature alone could free up the army number one band for two months' aid work in Somalia every February and March.
Undeniably though, the track record of celebrities-turned-politicians is mixed. Jesse "The Body" Ventura was an extremely unpopular governor of Minnesota after a career as an extremely popular wrestler - the ability to pull off a half-Nelson perhaps providing a bum steer as to his leadership qualities. Ronald Reagan was a much-loved president whose administration funded nun-killing Contras in Nicaragua out of secret deals with Ayatollah Khomeini's regime in Iran. Vaclav Havel did a pretty decent job, but there is no hiding the fact that when you start out as President of Czechoslovakia and finish up as President of the Czech Republic, things haven't all been plain sailing.
Bono, who has joked in the past - at least it might have been a joke - that he didn't want to move to a smaller house, has been mentioned in connection with so many jobs recently that one is reminded of the time Jimmy Carter told his mother Lillian that he was running for president, to which she replied, "How lovely, president of what, dear?"
The rumours that the star was in line for President of the World Bank were, however, dashed when Donald Rumsfeld's even more hawkish deputy, Paul Wolfowitz, the co-architect of the Iraqi invasion, was nominated for that position on Wednesday. At least Bono can console himself that it wasn't the funny name which stopped him getting the job.
As Ali herself said though, nobody can tell what will happen in 10 years' time. It is, after all, not so long ago that Ronan Keating was being semi-seriously discussed as a potential president. As things stand, he would be lucky to get more votes than Mikey.
John Smith
