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06/16/2005:
"Bono talks of US crusade"
There have been dinners with Brad and Jennifer and drinks with Tom Hanks and Cameron Diaz. So far, so routine for a rock star on a mission.But the sharpest advice Bono received on how to win American hearts and minds around to his crusade on Africa came from an altogether less expected source: the legendary stock market investor Warren Buffett.
The Irish rock star, who has arguably done more than any other to ensure that the cause of Africa gets on to the agenda of the US administration, has stepped up his lobbying while on U2's Vertigo tour in the US over the last two months to increase the pressure in the run-up to the G8 summit next month in Gleneagles.
Earlier this week he told the Guardian in Cologne how advice from Buffett, reportedly the second richest man in America, had shaped his strategy: "Warren Buffett told me, 'Don't appeal to the conscience of America, appeal to its greatness, and I think you'll get the job done'."
Others enlisted in Bono's crusade have included the media mogul Rupert Murdoch, the former Republican senator Jesse Helms, and figures on the religious right such as Pat Robertson and Billy Graham. The rock star described in his only newspaper interview before next month's G8 summit how he has shared a laugh with President Bush, whom he describes as "very funny".
He has not been afraid to use his Christian faith to appeal to the American religious right, dining with Billy Graham and his son Franklin, and quoting Gospel verses to Jesse Helms, which reduced the 83-year-old Republican to tears.
Full: guardian.co.uk
