Add Academy Award winning actor Matt Damon to the list of liberals who have grown disenchanted with President Barack Obama,
The Huffington Post reports. The box office star was an early and committed Obama supporter in the 2008 election.
But now, “I've talked to a lot of people who worked for Obama at the grassroots level. One of them said to me, 'Never again. I will never be fooled again by a politician,'" Damon told
Elle magazine. "You know, a one-term president with some b---- who actually got stuff done would have been, in the long run of the country, much better."
The Occupy Wall Street movement shows the opportunity Democrats have to assert themselves if they would grab the bull by the horns, Damon said. "If the Democrats think that they didn't have a mandate, people are literally without any focus or leadership, just wandering out into the streets to yell right now because they are so pissed off. Imagine if they had a leader."
This wasn’t Damon’s first broadside aimed at Obama. In March the actor ripped Obama's education policy. "I really think he misinterpreted his mandate. A friend of mine said to me the other day, I thought it was a great line, 'I no longer hope for audacity,' " Damon told CNN host Piers Morgan.
"He's doubled down on a lot of things. Going back to education, the idea that we're testing kids and we're tying teachers’ salaries to how kids are performing on tests. That kind of mechanized thinking has nothing to do with higher order. We're training them, not teaching them."
Later in March, Damon hit Obama over economic policy. "I think he's rolled over to Wall Street completely,” Damon told the U.K. Independent. “The economy has huge problems. We still have all these banks that are too big to fail. They're bigger and making more money than ever. Unemployment at 10 percent? It's terrible."
Damon believes Obama blew his mandate. "They had a chance that they don't have anymore to stand up for things. They've probably squandered that at this point. They'll probably just make whatever deals they can to try to get elected again."
Damon’s criticism hasn’t bent Obama too far out of shape. The president addressed his criticism at the White House Press Correspondents Dinner in April. "It's fair to say that when it comes to my presidency, the honeymoon is over,” Obama said. “Matt Damon said he [has been] disappointed in my performance. Well Matt, I just saw the 'Adjustment Bureau,' so ... right back atcha buddy."
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