U2 lead singer Bono praised former President George W. Bush for creating the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief and said former President Bill Clinton is “more of a rock star” than himself.
He also stressed the benefits of capitalism in his remarks delivered at Georgetown University.
“If George Bush was here — I know his daughter Barbara is here — I would get Matt Damon to kiss him on the lips and I would give him a more sort of Irish macho handshake kind of a thing,” Bono said at the event hosted by the Georgetown McDonough Global Social Enterprise Initiative, in partnership with Bank of America.
“It’s incredible, it’s incredible what George Bush’s — President Bush’s — name is in the history books. His name is in the front foreword of a book that’s written on the end of AIDS.”
If Bill Clinton was there, Bono said he would get him to “make the speech” since “he is just more of a rock star than I’ll ever be.”
Bono then broke into his own impression of Clinton.
The Grammy-award winner and co-founder of the non-profit ONE campaign also told the audience that Africa needs capitalism, not just foreign aid.
“Rock star preaches capitalism. Wow, sometimes I hear myself and I just can’t believe it but commerce is real… aid is just a stopgap,” Bono said. “Entrepreneurial capitalism takes more people out of poverty than aid, of course. We know that. We need Africa to become an economic powerhouse.”