Hope for the states

Much as the world might want to hold its hopes in reserve, much as heady optimism must be tempered by a realistic assessment of the mess the economy is in, it’s hard not to feel that Barack Obama’s impending inauguration signifies a born-again America. Since the election back in November, Sam Cooke’s ‘A Change Is Gonna Come’ has become the new de facto national anthem. The American people’s appetite for change could not have been made incarnate in a more explicit fashion: the country’s first black president, a liberal and a Democrat thus far unbesmirched by sex scandals or, more importantly, dirty deals done dirt cheap.

Obama is a fiery oratorical presence, a man who not only reads books, but writes them (his Dreams From My Father was, for the work of a political animal, an uncommonly candid and eloquent book), and his campaign was distinguished by a refusal to enter into low-blow politics, not to mention a willingness to co-opt the support of – and delegate responsibilty to – grass roots canvassers and supporters. Against his closest advisors’ counsel, he met the race issue head-on and confronted what could have been a strategic meltdown with a passionate speech concerning his own ethnic background. His courage was rewarded with a record voter turnout and an historic victory.
But Obama has his work cut out. He must effect a speedy but sensible withdrawal of US forces from Iraq, bail out the US economy, rehabilitate the ailing motor industry, and implement eco-friendly economic policies. That’s the work of a superhero, not a Chicago senator. And, as Orwell wrote, absolute power corrupts absolutely. But maybe, just maybe, this generation has produced a US president capable of transcending the inherent rottenness of the political machine.
Back in 2001, in an interview with Mikal Gilmore conducted shortly after 9/11, Bob Dylan said: “It is time now for great men to come forward. With small men, no great thing can be accomplished.”
The week of the election, Greil Marcus wrote about Dylan’s concert at the Northrop Auditorium, on the campus of the singer’s erswhile alma mater, the University of Minnesota:
“I feel as if I’m living in a new world and an old country, where all of its best words, down the centuries, are flesh. Or, as (Marcus’s high school friend) Barry Franklin put it last night, ‘I feel like I’ve died and gone to America.’”
Here Bob Geldof, Josh Ritter and Laura Izibor, three musicans from vastly different cultural backgrounds, tell us about their projections for the Obama era.

Obama is a fiery oratorical presence, a man who not only reads books, but writes them (his Dreams From My Father was, for the work of a political animal, an uncommonly candid and eloquent book), and his campaign was distinguished by a refusal to enter into low-blow politics, not to mention a willingness to co-opt the support of – and delegate responsibilty to – grass roots canvassers and supporters. Against his closest advisors’ counsel, he met the race issue head-on and confronted what could have been a strategic meltdown with a passionate speech concerning his own ethnic background. His courage was rewarded with a record voter turnout and an historic victory.
But Obama has his work cut out. He must effect a speedy but sensible withdrawal of US forces from Iraq, bail out the US economy, rehabilitate the ailing motor industry, and implement eco-friendly economic policies. That’s the work of a superhero, not a Chicago senator. And, as Orwell wrote, absolute power corrupts absolutely. But maybe, just maybe, this generation has produced a US president capable of transcending the inherent rottenness of the political machine.
Back in 2001, in an interview with Mikal Gilmore conducted shortly after 9/11, Bob Dylan said: “It is time now for great men to come forward. With small men, no great thing can be accomplished.”
The week of the election, Greil Marcus wrote about Dylan’s concert at the Northrop Auditorium, on the campus of the singer’s erswhile alma mater, the University of Minnesota:
“I feel as if I’m living in a new world and an old country, where all of its best words, down the centuries, are flesh. Or, as (Marcus’s high school friend) Barry Franklin put it last night, ‘I feel like I’ve died and gone to America.’”
Here Bob Geldof, Josh Ritter and Laura Izibor, three musicans from vastly different cultural backgrounds, tell us about their projections for the Obama era.

BOB GELDOF
The great triumph in the election of Barack Obama is that here’s a black President. America’s endorsement of Obama as their leader should make us re-examine our own situation in Europe and say, ‘Fucking hell guys! Brilliant! How do you do that?’
His election demonstrates that the US has, to put it simply, jumped way ahead of us here. Do you think there will ever be a Muslim president in France? Will there ever be a black or Indian or Pakistani Prime Minister of the UK? Or will there be a Muslim Taoiseach in Ireland? In fact, could you even envisage an Anglo-Irish Taoiseach? This election showed that the American people have matured way beyond what we’d imagined. We’ve already accepted the incredible image of black kids running around the White House as the new reality. That is a remarkable thing.
Initially, when I first heard that he was looking for the Democratic nomination, I wasn’t particularly excited about Obama because I just didn’t consider him to be a serious candidate. Honestly, I thought it was the Democratic Party throwing in your token black candidate. During Christmas 2007, I appeared on David’s Frost’s TV show, on al-Jazeera’s English station, to review the year just ended and to look at the one ahead. We were talking about the forthcoming US election and my position on that show was that Hilary would get the Democratic Party nomination. I was sure she was capable of winning the Presidency, though I did think it would be a bit odd to have four consecutive presidents that were either from the Bush or Clinton dynasties.
But my attitude to Obama changed, and changed quickly, as the Presidential election campaign got underway. What really made me take his candidacy seriously was when Oprah Winfrey publicly endorsed him. I remember thinking, ‘Wow! That’s really clever.’ I would say that was the moment I began to look at him as a politician because Oprah transcends colour – she is so ubiquitous that colour ceases to be an issue on any level.
And of course, when you saw Obama you thought, ‘Wow! What a fucking dude! He looks great. He’s sharp. He dresses great.’ You looked into his history and you thought, ‘This guy is a proper fuck-off player here.’ And then you’d hear his powerfully articulated oratory. This person filled the room as it were, if you want to put it in rock ’n’ roll terms. And so, as the campaign rolled on, he seemed to capture the imagination of an entire country, indeed an entire world, if it’s not too much to say that.
He had the words. Oratory is a deeply, deeply powerful tool and we forget about it because it gets reduced by modern media into trite soundbites. All politics was like this, a devalued currency – and then, suddenly, Obama comes along and effectively encapsulates and articulates our aspirations. Listening to him, I started to think, ‘Fuck! That’s what I’m feeling. It’s not maybe what I’m thinking but it’s what I’m feeling.’ That was very exciting.
But what are the policies? It was a good question when people asked it – but, at that point, things had become so degraded in the US, and indeed politics had become so degraded, that it was enough to be going on with that here was somebody expressing what we genuinely are and what we want to be. It was a case of Obama saying, in effect, on behalf of the American people: ‘We are not removed from the rest of the word – we want in again!’ He was able to express that.
I was also impressed by the fact that Obama ran a potent 21st century campaign. His camp comprehended how important it would be to focus on the web. He understood the importance of this new world, tapped into that, and completely bypassed the paradigms of an old system of the rich give you money, the lobby groups donate and then you’re unduly indebted to them for the rest of your administration. Instead, Obama went out and got five bucks from zillions of people via the web. In so many ways, it’s a much better platform on which to build.
So, all these factors made this person hugely exciting and modern – not only in his speech, but in his self. Quite simply, he is a 21st century individual. As the pressure mounted, I was impressed with his demeanour of calm, considering that there was panic in the US about the wars, and the housing bubbles that were about to burst. Change is scary for some people and exciting for others. He was able to express this idea that things can be different, that change would be good but in a calm way and you believed it. Also, he made everybody else involved in the race look old. When you check back now at the debates – even though it’s only a few weeks since the election – everyone seems to be talking in another language altogether! He however was in tune.

For all of these reasons, the inauguration of Barack Obama is a key moment in American and world history. Again, the Americans’ ability to reinvent themselves is staggering. This was the most open and hotly debated election anywhere in the world – ever! I would love to have had a vote. The campaign was an object lesson in people deciding, debating, arguing amongst themselves in an eloquent way – apart from a few headbangers that you can literally count on two hands. It was phenomenal.
Of course Obama was attacked because of the Rev. Wright controversy, but his response – again understanding the nature of modern communication – was not to talk down to his audience, nor to debase himself by denying allegations, but instead to argue the notion of race in, I think, the best speech of the whole campaign. It was highly intellectual and crammed with ideas that you could pick out and consider and debate yourself. He gave to the American electorate a kind of maturity; he said, ‘I’m taking this seriously. I’m going to forget all the hysteria on Fox TV. I’m going to argue this point with you. I’m going to take it home, think about it and come back!’ And he did.
Looking towards the future, and how he’ll perform as President, the most significant thing is that this guy is an African. He’s not an African-American – so he’s not burdened with the baggage of 400 years of slavery. I mean, they only came out of that condition in the late 1960s; thankfully, Obama didn’t have that dreadful history to pull him down. He came from being the son of an African goat herder, which is no different from being the son of an Irish cattle herder. Here’s a guy that is the son of a white American and an African, who has a global view because he was brought up in various locations. He never lived in the ghetto and got down with the gangs. He never had this emotional baggage holding him back because it wasn’t his culture.
The possibilities as a result are amazing, in terms of his perspective on the world and what he’ll bring to foreign affairs, which is a key interest for me. He is African and so I think that Obama will visit Africa, in the same way that Kennedy visited Ireland. I think there will be a bunch of African leaders coming to his door and he definitely will give them a sensitive hearing. That has to be a good thing.
We know he will put more emphasis on African issues because the ‘One Campaign’ was very involved with both the Obama and the John McCain campaigns. Both of the candidates had announced their intention to oversee a much bigger commitment from the United States to Africa, with the benchmark being Bush’s commitment, which was quadruple what Clinton had done. But they both said they’d go further and I believe they will.
On the subject of Bush, he’s leaving office with one thing to his credit – and, bizarrely, that’s Africa. He did a good job there. My opinion on his politics, in general, is probably the same as anybody else; I think most Hot Press readers and I would agree on practically everything else about Bush – but with regard to Africa I’m not going to diss him because there’s nothing to diss.
Bono will probably meet with Obama before I get the chance! To be honest, I’m not particularly keen to sit down with any of these people – as they all know my message already! Besides, Obama might have the attitude of, ‘I don’t need you guys! I don’t need you to tell me about this cause – what can you tell me that I don’t fucking know?! How many relatives do you have down there?’ That’s one possible reaction. Or it could be that he feels he has to meet with the likes of me, but either way, I think his number one priority has got to be the economy and, after that, the various wars that are adding to the overall uncertainty and anxiety being felt both in the US and internationally.

Because the world is in such turmoil right now, we keep looking at Obama as if he’s the President already! Unfortunately, I think this has resulted in his honeymoon period ending even before his inauguration. People keep questioning his choices of team selection, his economic policies, which he had to come forward with and present – so there’s already political debate about whether they’re going to be effective. In that regard, he’s not new anymore and he’s certainly not black anymore – without question, he’s the President of the United States. He’s the Commander In Chief.
So, the romance of the inauguration – as was the case with Kennedy’s – will only be electrifying if he turns up the oratorical volume again. I hope he will – and I’m sure he will. From what I understand, there is this huge grass roots pilgrimage from all over America, especially by African-Americans, to get to Washington to witness this great day. Hopefully, it will be an amazing event.
A huge number of people have invested hope in Obama, but, we must remember, that in the end, he’s a politician! He’s now at the top of his profession and you’ve got to be the most ruthless one of the pack to get there. So will he now deliver on the promise of that remarkable election campaign? One thing’s for sure: it’s a tough job and so he will proceed with caution. He has to watch everything he does – everyone has a phone pointed at you, waiting for you to make a mistake that they can post on YouTube. There is precious little room for error. But that is for the future…
For now, Obama’s great triumph is that he exceeded race and got elected to the most powerful political position in the world. That’s the historic moment. What happens after this is anybody’s guess. But I am optimistic in a way that I haven’t been in a very long time.

In an interview with Jason O’Toole

JOSH RITTER
For people of my generation, Obama’s election is incredible in that we’ve grown up in the shadow of the Vietnam War, and the whirlwind of the ’60s generally. We’ve grown up hearing that there never was a time like the ’60s, but now we have our own time, and for that reason, it’s an incredible moment.
Everybody wants certain things out of this presidency – it feels like we’re hungy kids at a buffet. Iraq needs to be dealt with, but we’re playing catch-up now. However, Obama understands that we can’t have a blanket response to everything, and he understands subtlety to a degree that makes me trust him. For example, I trust him to make sure we have the best possible exit from Iraq.
I’ve got all kinds of letters from people over there – particularly from girls who are serving – mostly because of ‘Girl In The War’. People want to reach out and just talk to anybody. Like a lot of people, my personal involvement in the Iraq war has been zero, and I don’t want it to be any closer.
The people over there are doing what they genuinely believe is the right thing to do, and I can’t question their sacrifices. I can question the necessity of them, but not the actual sacrifices. I’ve got a cousin who’s on his way over there soon. It’s a volunteer army, but at the same time, it feels like it’s reached everybody.
I’m in New York right now, and during the campaign, a number of us here went to Pennsylvania, which was a swing state, and did a lot of knocking on doors for Obama. That was an incredible experience. We were walking around parts of Philadelphia which were really pretty awful slums, and yet you felt like you were on the same team as somebody who you had so little in common with, just by virtue of the fact of where you were born.
At one point, just on a regular weekend, there were about a thousand people who had come into Philadelphia from New York. They were probably getting sick of it by that point! As soon as they saw a blue folder, they knew you were for Obama. People got involved in all kinds of different ways, and it was really a challenge to say, ‘Listen, this is an election for this guy. But this is also a moment, and don’t let it go by without owning a piece of it. Don’t tell your kids that you stayed at home and watched the James Bond marathon.’
I’ve always had a pretty jaundiced take on politics. Like, the better the guy is, the more skeletons he’s got in his closet. But that’s changed my opinion a little bit. I feel like there’s a way to get through a time like this and be a better person. So, I loved it. I love reading about American politics, and I just feel like there’s never been a time like this, where people are ready for a high-minded debate.
But you do think, ‘If this is what it feels like for us, what does it feel like for Obama?’ He’s tied to the horse now. At a certain point, it’s like, what are you going to do to live up to this hype? I kept being reminded all the way through of the Robert Redford movie The Candidate. But he’s just got so much goodwill going for him right now. I know the problems are enormous, but he’s certainly a better alternative than McCain/Palin.
About two and half years ago, I got asked to play this thing called the Centre For American Progress, which was a Democratic think tank. I remember at the time, all these people were talking about how Hilary was going to be president. And now they’re all working on the transition for Obama.
I was just in Japan, and people would come up to me, because obviously I stood out. They’d ask me if I was from America, and when I’d say yeah, they’d say, ‘America’s amazing, it’s a strong country.’ And then they’d just say, ‘Obama’. That was incredible. I wanted to hug them.

Josh Ritter’s ‘Empty Hearts’ single, taken from The Historical Conquests Of... LP, is out now on Independent Records.

LAURA IZIBOR
I was in the USA for most of the campaign, and I was so inspired by Barack Obama that I took a serious interest in politics for the first time. Sure, I’d read the news headlines, but this man inspired me and made me genuinely feel that we were moving into a new era. I was so excited on-line watching the votes coming in. Me and my Mam adore him!
His election has already had a huge impact on black people in America, especially those who might have felt that they couldn’t do something just because of the colour of their skin. Now they’re thinking ‘if this man can do it despite all the obstacles, I can do it too’. There’s already a different atmosphere on the streets. People are smiling again! It might sound corny, but people have hope for the future. Don’t forget it’s not so long since Oprah Winfrey worked in a bar and wasn’t allowed to talk to the customers because of her colour.
But he’s also good for the USA in general, as well as for the rest of the world. While I was touring around radio stations over there doing promo work for my new album, every station asked me about how Obama’s election was perceived abroad. People were amazed when I told them I’d seen ‘Vote Obama’ posters in Cork. They are quite closed-minded about what goes on beyond America, so they are only realising now how much Obama has done to improve the awful image the USA was given by George Bush over the last eight years. Barack’s such a gracious man and a great example of a human being that you might want to be like. So somebody with those qualities leading a country such as the USA can only be beneficial.
Although I don’t bring politics into my own music, I admire those who do, like Bruce Springsteen and Bob Dylan, and if I believed in a politician enough I’d have no qualms about being linked with him or her.
Ireland needs its own Barack Obama. I don’t mean a person of colour, but someone who can reach the ordinary people, who comes on like they really care, not somebody who drives a big car and will do anything just to get elected. Obama seems to me like the friend’s dad that you can talk to, a guy who knows how to get his hands dirty.

Laura Izibor’s album Let the Truth be Told will be released in Ireland on Atlantic Records in March, preceded by the single ‘Shine’.

MICHAEL FRANTI
It’s impossible to express my feelings about Barack Obama without first the perspective of the oval office calamity that is George W. Bush.
In his 8 years at the helm, “W” succeeded in combining the worst feats of all previous Presidents and effortlessly rolled them all into one. Starting erroneous wars (that cost the lives of hundreds of thousands), government corruption, economic disaster, domestic emergency failure, a toxic environmental policy, exacerbated middle east violence, all while thumbing an arrogant nose at the world and those in America who pleaded with him to find a better way.
During my travels in Iraq, Israel, Gaza, Brazil, Indonesia, Japan, Europe and all over the States I have seen and heard the voices of people who want change. They want an end to violence, the stabilization of our economies, education and healthcare for all, renewable energy and an environmental vision with an eye on generations to come.
This is why the night before election day I curled up in bed with my nine-year-old son and cried as I read a children’s biography of Barack. I explained that over the last eight years there were times (particularly when I was in the middle east) that I felt so much pain in my heart and so bleak about the future. I told him how in my lifetime I never imagined I would be voting for a black man for President, let alone someone with as much charisma and dynamism as Obama. I cried as my pen hit the paper of my ballot.
Obama is the model of a 21st century world leader. Born of a European American mother and a Kenyan father. A Christian mother, a Muslim father. Raised in Hawai'i, but he also spent part of his childhood in Indonesia seeing America from the outside. He worked as a community organizer but was also reared politically in Chicago, where understanding “the system” is political survival. Obama ran not as a “lefty peacenik”, but as a bipartisan candidate willing to compromise for the greater good rather than drown in idealism.
This will no doubt lead to cries of hypocrisy, cynicism and sellout as the months and years pass by those who have pinned their personal hopes to his lapel like a three dollar American flag pin. He may disappoint you at times; I am certain he will disappoint me. That is what happens when you work in a collaborative setting like the US Government, or in a country like America, or in the fiery, delicate bouquet that is planet earth. This does not mean you should not get mad when you are disappointed. On the contrary, get fired up, speak out, organize and be heard!
The onus is on all of US who really care, to not just hold him to his promises, but help him to achieve them. He may not become all the best attributes of every president rolled into one, but at a time when we need it the most he has offered us the light, the glimmer, the hope, the opportunity, that things could get even a little bit better (hell, a lot better!).
It’s up to all 6 billion of us on this planet to seize that opportunity and do everything we can to make it real.
Go Barack!!!

To download Michael Franti's 'Obama Song' go to www.michaelfranti.com>BOB GELDOF
The great triumph in the election of Barack Obama is that here’s a black President. America’s endorsement of Obama as their leader should make us re-examine our own situation in Europe and say, ‘Fucking hell guys! Brilliant! How do you do that?’
His election demonstrates that the US has, to put it simply, jumped way ahead of us here. Do you think there will ever be a Muslim president in France? Will there ever be a black or Indian or Pakistani Prime Minister of the UK? Or will there be a Muslim Taoiseach in Ireland? In fact, could you even envisage an Anglo-Irish Taoiseach? This election showed that the American people have matured way beyond what we’d imagined. We’ve already accepted the incredible image of black kids running around the White House as the new reality. That is a remarkable thing.
Initially, when I first heard that he was looking for the Democratic nomination, I wasn’t particularly excited about Obama because I just didn’t consider him to be a serious candidate. Honestly, I thought it was the Democratic Party throwing in your token black candidate. During Christmas 2007, I appeared on David’s Frost’s TV show, on al-Jazeera’s English station, to review the year just ended and to look at the one ahead. We were talking about the forthcoming US election and my position on that show was that Hilary would get the Democratic Party nomination. I was sure she was capable of winning the Presidency, though I did think it would be a bit odd to have four consecutive presidents that were either from the Bush or Clinton dynasties.
But my attitude to Obama changed, and changed quickly, as the Presidential election campaign got underway. What really made me take his candidacy seriously was when Oprah Winfrey publicly endorsed him. I remember thinking, ‘Wow! That’s really clever.’ I would say that was the moment I began to look at him as a politician because Oprah transcends colour – she is so ubiquitous that colour ceases to be an issue on any level.
And of course, when you saw Obama you thought, ‘Wow! What a fucking dude! He looks great. He’s sharp. He dresses great.’ You looked into his history and you thought, ‘This guy is a proper fuck-off player here.’ And then you’d hear his powerfully articulated oratory. This person filled the room as it were, if you want to put it in rock ’n’ roll terms. And so, as the campaign rolled on, he seemed to capture the imagination of an entire country, indeed an entire world, if it’s not too much to say that.
He had the words. Oratory is a deeply, deeply powerful tool and we forget about it because it gets reduced by modern media into trite soundbites. All politics was like this, a devalued currency – and then, suddenly, Obama comes along and effectively encapsulates and articulates our aspirations. Listening to him, I started to think, ‘Fuck! That’s what I’m feeling. It’s not maybe what I’m thinking but it’s what I’m feeling.’ That was very exciting.
But what are the policies? It was a good question when people asked it – but, at that point, things had become so degraded in the US, and indeed politics had become so degraded, that it was enough to be going on with that here was somebody expressing what we genuinely are and what we want to be. It was a case of Obama saying, in effect, on behalf of the American people: ‘We are not removed from the rest of the word – we want in again!’ He was able to express that.
I was also impressed by the fact that Obama ran a potent 21st century campaign. His camp comprehended how important it would be to focus on the web. He understood the importance of this new world, tapped into that, and completely bypassed the paradigms of an old system of the rich give you money, the lobby groups donate and then you’re unduly indebted to them for the rest of your administration. Instead, Obama went out and got five bucks from zillions of people via the web. In so many ways, it’s a much better platform on which to build.
So, all these factors made this person hugely exciting and modern – not only in his speech, but in his self. Quite simply, he is a 21st century individual. As the pressure mounted, I was impressed with his demeanour of calm, considering that there was panic in the US about the wars, and the housing bubbles that were about to burst. Change is scary for some people and exciting for others. He was able to express this idea that things can be different, that change would be good but in a calm way and you believed it. Also, he made everybody else involved in the race look old. When you check back now at the debates – even though it’s only a few weeks since the election – everyone seems to be talking in another language altogether! He however was in tune.

For all of these reasons, the inauguration of Barack Obama is a key moment in American and world history. Again, the Americans’ ability to reinvent themselves is staggering. This was the most open and hotly debated election anywhere in the world – ever! I would love to have had a vote. The campaign was an object lesson in people deciding, debating, arguing amongst themselves in an eloquent way – apart from a few headbangers that you can literally count on two hands. It was phenomenal.
Of course Obama was attacked because of the Rev. Wright controversy, but his response – again understanding the nature of modern communication – was not to talk down to his audience, nor to debase himself by denying allegations, but instead to argue the notion of race in, I think, the best speech of the whole campaign. It was highly intellectual and crammed with ideas that you could pick out and consider and debate yourself. He gave to the American electorate a kind of maturity; he said, ‘I’m taking this seriously. I’m going to forget all the hysteria on Fox TV. I’m going to argue this point with you. I’m going to take it home, think about it and come back!’ And he did.
Looking towards the future, and how he’ll perform as President, the most significant thing is that this guy is an African. He’s not an African-American – so he’s not burdened with the baggage of 400 years of slavery. I mean, they only came out of that condition in the late 1960s; thankfully, Obama didn’t have that dreadful history to pull him down. He came from being the son of an African goat herder, which is no different from being the son of an Irish cattle herder. Here’s a guy that is the son of a white American and an African, who has a global view because he was brought up in various locations. He never lived in the ghetto and got down with the gangs. He never had this emotional baggage holding him back because it wasn’t his culture.
The possibilities as a result are amazing, in terms of his perspective on the world and what he’ll bring to foreign affairs, which is a key interest for me. He is African and so I think that Obama will visit Africa, in the same way that Kennedy visited Ireland. I think there will be a bunch of African leaders coming to his door and he definitely will give them a sensitive hearing. That has to be a good thing.
We know he will put more emphasis on African issues because the ‘One Campaign’ was very involved with both the Obama and the John McCain campaigns. Both of the candidates had announced their intention to oversee a much bigger commitment from the United States to Africa, with the benchmark being Bush’s commitment, which was quadruple what Clinton had done. But they both said they’d go further and I believe they will.
On the subject of Bush, he’s leaving office with one thing to his credit – and, bizarrely, that’s Africa. He did a good job there. My opinion on his politics, in general, is probably the same as anybody else; I think most Hot Press readers and I would agree on practically everything else about Bush – but with regard to Africa I’m not going to diss him because there’s nothing to diss.
Bono will probably meet with Obama before I get the chance! To be honest, I’m not particularly keen to sit down with any of these people – as they all know my message already! Besides, Obama might have the attitude of, ‘I don’t need you guys! I don’t need you to tell me about this cause – what can you tell me that I don’t fucking know?! How many relatives do you have down there?’ That’s one possible reaction. Or it could be that he feels he has to meet with the likes of me, but either way, I think his number one priority has got to be the economy and, after that, the various wars that are adding to the overall uncertainty and anxiety being felt both in the US and internationally.

Because the world is in such turmoil right now, we keep looking at Obama as if he’s the President already! Unfortunately, I think this has resulted in his honeymoon period ending even before his inauguration. People keep questioning his choices of team selection, his economic policies, which he had to come forward with and present – so there’s already political debate about whether they’re going to be effective. In that regard, he’s not new anymore and he’s certainly not black anymore – without question, he’s the President of the United States. He’s the Commander In Chief.
So, the romance of the inauguration – as was the case with Kennedy’s – will only be electrifying if he turns up the oratorical volume again. I hope he will – and I’m sure he will. From what I understand, there is this huge grass roots pilgrimage from all over America, especially by African-Americans, to get to Washington to witness this great day. Hopefully, it will be an amazing event.
A huge number of people have invested hope in Obama, but, we must remember, that in the end, he’s a politician! He’s now at the top of his profession and you’ve got to be the most ruthless one of the pack to get there. So will he now deliver on the promise of that remarkable election campaign? One thing’s for sure: it’s a tough job and so he will proceed with caution. He has to watch everything he does – everyone has a phone pointed at you, waiting for you to make a mistake that they can post on YouTube. There is precious little room for error. But that is for the future…
For now, Obama’s great triumph is that he exceeded race and got elected to the most powerful political position in the world. That’s the historic moment. What happens after this is anybody’s guess. But I am optimistic in a way that I haven’t been in a very long time.

In an interview with Jason O’Toole

JOSH RITTER
For people of my generation, Obama’s election is incredible in that we’ve grown up in the shadow of the Vietnam War, and the whirlwind of the ’60s generally. We’ve grown up hearing that there never was a time like the ’60s, but now we have our own time, and for that reason, it’s an incredible moment.
Everybody wants certain things out of this presidency – it feels like we’re hungy kids at a buffet. Iraq needs to be dealt with, but we’re playing catch-up now. However, Obama understands that we can’t have a blanket response to everything, and he understands subtlety to a degree that makes me trust him. For example, I trust him to make sure we have the best possible exit from Iraq.
I’ve got all kinds of letters from people over there – particularly from girls who are serving – mostly because of ‘Girl In The War’. People want to reach out and just talk to anybody. Like a lot of people, my personal involvement in the Iraq war has been zero, and I don’t want it to be any closer.
The people over there are doing what they genuinely believe is the right thing to do, and I can’t question their sacrifices. I can question the necessity of them, but not the actual sacrifices. I’ve got a cousin who’s on his way over there soon. It’s a volunteer army, but at the same time, it feels like it’s reached everybody.
I’m in New York right now, and during the campaign, a number of us here went to Pennsylvania, which was a swing state, and did a lot of knocking on doors for Obama. That was an incredible experience. We were walking around parts of Philadelphia which were really pretty awful slums, and yet you felt like you were on the same team as somebody who you had so little in common with, just by virtue of the fact of where you were born.
At one point, just on a regular weekend, there were about a thousand people who had come into Philadelphia from New York. They were probably getting sick of it by that point! As soon as they saw a blue folder, they knew you were for Obama. People got involved in all kinds of different ways, and it was really a challenge to say, ‘Listen, this is an election for this guy. But this is also a moment, and don’t let it go by without owning a piece of it. Don’t tell your kids that you stayed at home and watched the James Bond marathon.’
I’ve always had a pretty jaundiced take on politics. Like, the better the guy is, the more skeletons he’s got in his closet. But that’s changed my opinion a little bit. I feel like there’s a way to get through a time like this and be a better person. So, I loved it. I love reading about American politics, and I just feel like there’s never been a time like this, where people are ready for a high-minded debate.
But you do think, ‘If this is what it feels like for us, what does it feel like for Obama?’ He’s tied to the horse now. At a certain point, it’s like, what are you going to do to live up to this hype? I kept being reminded all the way through of the Robert Redford movie The Candidate. But he’s just got so much goodwill going for him right now. I know the problems are enormous, but he’s certainly a better alternative than McCain/Palin.
About two and half years ago, I got asked to play this thing called the Centre For American Progress, which was a Democratic think tank. I remember at the time, all these people were talking about how Hilary was going to be president. And now they’re all working on the transition for Obama.
I was just in Japan, and people would come up to me, because obviously I stood out. They’d ask me if I was from America, and when I’d say yeah, they’d say, ‘America’s amazing, it’s a strong country.’ And then they’d just say, ‘Obama’. That was incredible. I wanted to hug them.

Josh Ritter’s ‘Empty Hearts’ single, taken from The Historical Conquests Of... LP, is out now on Independent Records.

LAURA IZIBOR
I was in the USA for most of the campaign, and I was so inspired by Barack Obama that I took a serious interest in politics for the first time. Sure, I’d read the news headlines, but this man inspired me and made me genuinely feel that we were moving into a new era. I was so excited on-line watching the votes coming in. Me and my Mam adore him!
His election has already had a huge impact on black people in America, especially those who might have felt that they couldn’t do something just because of the colour of their skin. Now they’re thinking ‘if this man can do it despite all the obstacles, I can do it too’. There’s already a different atmosphere on the streets. People are smiling again! It might sound corny, but people have hope for the future. Don’t forget it’s not so long since Oprah Winfrey worked in a bar and wasn’t allowed to talk to the customers because of her colour.
But he’s also good for the USA in general, as well as for the rest of the world. While I was touring around radio stations over there doing promo work for my new album, every station asked me about how Obama’s election was perceived abroad. People were amazed when I told them I’d seen ‘Vote Obama’ posters in Cork. They are quite closed-minded about what goes on beyond America, so they are only realising now how much Obama has done to improve the awful image the USA was given by George Bush over the last eight years. Barack’s such a gracious man and a great example of a human being that you might want to be like. So somebody with those qualities leading a country such as the USA can only be beneficial.
Although I don’t bring politics into my own music, I admire those who do, like Bruce Springsteen and Bob Dylan, and if I believed in a politician enough I’d have no qualms about being linked with him or her.
Ireland needs its own Barack Obama. I don’t mean a person of colour, but someone who can reach the ordinary people, who comes on like they really care, not somebody who drives a big car and will do anything just to get elected. Obama seems to me like the friend’s dad that you can talk to, a guy who knows how to get his hands dirty.

Laura Izibor’s album Let the Truth be Told will be released in Ireland on Atlantic Records in March, preceded by the single ‘Shine’.

MICHAEL FRANTI
It’s impossible to express my feelings about Barack Obama without first the perspective of the oval office calamity that is George W. Bush.
In his 8 years at the helm, “W” succeeded in combining the worst feats of all previous Presidents and effortlessly rolled them all into one. Starting erroneous wars (that cost the lives of hundreds of thousands), government corruption, economic disaster, domestic emergency failure, a toxic environmental policy, exacerbated middle east violence, all while thumbing an arrogant nose at the world and those in America who pleaded with him to find a better way.
During my travels in Iraq, Israel, Gaza, Brazil, Indonesia, Japan, Europe and all over the States I have seen and heard the voices of people who want change. They want an end to violence, the stabilization of our economies, education and healthcare for all, renewable energy and an environmental vision with an eye on generations to come.
This is why the night before election day I curled up in bed with my nine-year-old son and cried as I read a children’s biography of Barack. I explained that over the last eight years there were times (particularly when I was in the middle east) that I felt so much pain in my heart and so bleak about the future. I told him how in my lifetime I never imagined I would be voting for a black man for President, let alone someone with as much charisma and dynamism as Obama. I cried as my pen hit the paper of my ballot.
Obama is the model of a 21st century world leader. Born of a European American mother and a Kenyan father. A Christian mother, a Muslim father. Raised in Hawai'i, but he also spent part of his childhood in Indonesia seeing America from the outside. He worked as a community organizer but was also reared politically in Chicago, where understanding “the system” is political survival. Obama ran not as a “lefty peacenik”, but as a bipartisan candidate willing to compromise for the greater good rather than drown in idealism.
This will no doubt lead to cries of hypocrisy, cynicism and sellout as the months and years pass by those who have pinned their personal hopes to his lapel like a three dollar American flag pin. He may disappoint you at times; I am certain he will disappoint me. That is what happens when you work in a collaborative setting like the US Government, or in a country like America, or in the fiery, delicate bouquet that is planet earth. This does not mean you should not get mad when you are disappointed. On the contrary, get fired up, speak out, organize and be heard!
The onus is on all of US who really care, to not just hold him to his promises, but help him to achieve them. He may not become all the best attributes of every president rolled into one, but at a time when we need it the most he has offered us the light, the glimmer, the hope, the opportunity, that things could get even a little bit better (hell, a lot better!).
It’s up to all 6 billion of us on this planet to seize that opportunity and do everything we can to make it real.
Go Barack!!!

To download Michael Franti's 'Obama Song' go to www.michaelfranti.com