Cup d'état

Pres. Obama watches USA-Ghana during break at G12 summit

It was unfortunate that the first African-American president in the White House  couldn''t head out to the first World Cup on African soil. But with the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico and the G12 summit in Canada, it would have been a public relations risk with our ever-fickle populace. Pres. Obama got into the spirit at the hotel in Toronto with other world leaders, and lived to tweet about a few times.

But it was to the U.S. embassy in Pretoria did really took the social media cake, posting and commenting some interesting stuff down on the ground in South African through their Facebook and Twitter sites.

The White House sent out VP Joe Biden to the VIP box at the opening match in Jo'burg, sitting behind Desmond Tutu while the Arch got his groove on in the booth after Tshabalala scored a spectacular opening goal of the tournament.

Then it was Bill Clinton's turn to take charge, going BYOB after the Algeria match and then turning up the glitz in rusty Bloemfontein for the second round against Ghana. Instead of bringing the beers he brought along famous friends like Mick Jagger, Kobe Bryant and, uh, Katie Couric and Wolf Blitzer. It was then announced that Mr. Clinton will spearhead the American delegation to Zurich at the end of this year to campaign for the 2022 World Cup in the USA, which Bill knows something about.

A day after the final at Soccer City, Pres. Obama sat down with South African state broadcaster SABC for an exclusive interview from the Oval Office, lauding the hosts for their fine management of the tournament and what the event will mean for further investment into, not out of, Africa.