Vargas Llosa Speaks Out

In a recent interview reported in the Latin American Herald Tribune, well-known Peruvian novelist Mario Vargas Llosa has some interesting things to say. On the current economic crisis:

[Vargas Llosa] considers "great traumas" like the current financial crisis "very stimulating" for literature, and therefore predicts the beginning of a "good period" for literary creativity.

On the election of Barack Obama to the U.S. presidency:

Barack Obama is "the first intellectual" to enter the White House in the history of the country. In [Vargas Llosa's] opinion, that circumstance is as important or more so than the fact that a black has been elected head of state, because up to now the intellectual excellence of a candidate tended to arouse "great distrust" in the North American electorate.

I think he's right in connection with recent years, but I'm not sure this broad denunciation applies before that.