Unless you’ve been living on another planet, you’ll know that the American Presidential election race is well under way, with the Republican candidate John McCain taking on Democrat candidate, Barack Obama for the coveted place at the White House. What you probably don’t know is that bingo is playing a part in all this election stuff…

The thing is, all the talk of politics is bemusing many people, the speeches that seem to go on for ages can be, well, a little snooze- inducing. That’s where Barack Obama Bingo comes in! The new version of bingo was created to encourage people to keep alert during speeches or debates so that they can be better informed of his policies and have a bit of fun when everything seems sooooo serious!

Barack Obama Bingo has been taking America by storm, with many websites setting up bingo cards to download and play whilst watching their candidate on television.

The game works like this: each bingo card has 25 squares on it, with one blank space in the centre. The cards have 24 randomly selected words that relate to Obama on them, these include things like ‘Healthcare’, ‘Campaign’, ‘Climate Change’, ‘Reform’ and ‘Americans’.

All you need to do is grab a bunch of mates, download a different card each – or make your own! Simply watch the speech or debate on TV and mark off your cards when Obama says a word that appears on your card! The first person to get a horizontal line across is the winner! They should stand up and shout ‘McCain’ to declare themselves the winner!
Of course, it wouldn’t be fair on Republican candidate, John McCain if there wasn’t a version of this game for him; and there is – McCain Bingo! So Republican supporters can get involved in the bingo fun too! All they need to do is shout ‘Obama!’ when they win!

Presidency and bingo, two words you wouldn’t normally put together but it seems that they work together very well indeed! Bingo provides a bit of light hearted fun, just when you need it, and with everything seeming to be so serious in America right now, it’s just the ticket!