Matt Damon: Obama Isn’t ‘Someone Like FDR’
Time's Ten Questions to Matt Damon beat around the bush about Damon's disappointment with President Obama as he's failed to deliver for the teachers' unions, but when asked what kind of leader America needs, Damon suggested “someone like FDR,” and not like Obama. They didn't discuss the Education Secretary offering to meet the celebrity at the airport . This has to be especially embarrassing for Time, since many people remember their fawning Obama-as-FDR cover. At the Save Our Schools rally in Washington, you made comments defending teachers that received a lot of attention. My mother is a professor of early-childhood education. At the rally, I just wanted to boost teachers' morale because they've been taking a real beating. How many young people are not going into teaching who would have if there was more prestige or if public treatment of teachers was better? You've been critical of President Obama recently. What kind of leader do we need? Somebody who believes that building a strong, solid, educated middle class is ultimately the best thing for America. Someone like FDR. There's a misconception that leaders lead. They don't. They follow. Every great movement has come from the bottom up. Damon's declined the wish of Michael Moore to run against Obama in 2012. “I would never give up this great job that I have; I love making movies; it is way more fun than being a politician,” he explained. “It's what I've spent my adult life doing and it's what I'm good at. It's what I like, so I'll hang here.” Moore told a panel of bloggers “I think that [Matt Damon] has been very courageous in not caring about who he offends by saying the things that need to be said here, and if you want to win, the Republicans have certainly shown the way — that when you run someone who is popular, you win,” he said. “Sometimes even when you run an actor, you win. And I guess I only throw his name out there because I’d like us to start thinking that way.”
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Matt Damon: Obama Isn’t ‘Someone Like FDR’
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on September 7, 2011. Filed under