Hey, America, Your Time Is Now: Bono

Conservatives sneered at European naivete and even liberals shrugged when Barack Obama won the Nobel, but for U2's Bono, "the virtual Obama is the real Obama, and the man might deserve the hype." The humanitarian rock star lays out the difficult tasks Obama faces, from religious extremism to climate change and poverty; while solutions are "doable," "the Nobel Peace Prize is the rest of the world saying, “Don’t blow it.”

It's a time of rebranding for a beleaguered America, writes Bono in a New York Times op-ed, and a hopeful world is ready to swoon. "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." (More Barack Obama stories.)