Matt Damon threw an elbow at President Obama’s “vague” 2008 campaign platform, and seemed conflicted about his support for the president this year during an interview this week.
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“I take issue with a few of the directions Obama has gone in,” Damon said in an interview with The Atlantic published yesterday, in which he discussed his disappointment with Obama over a lack of foreign aid to Africa. “When you run on something as vague as hope and change, I think a lot of people put their own sh-t on you,” he added.
Damon then gave contradictory statements about his support for Obama. “I’m still on hope and change. I’m saying it all comes through in the second term,” he said. But then, asked if he was back on Obama’s “hope and change team,” Damon answered in the negative. “I’m not back, but I love the game, and it’s my responsibility to vote,” he said, indicating that he will vote for Obama in any event.
The actor had very warm praise for President George W. Bush, by contrast. “I would kiss George W. Bush on the mouth for what he did on PEPFAR [President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief],” Damon said. “Three seconds. No tongue.”
He added that Bush gave him “a sense of national pride going around, talking to thses people [in Africa], and they were so happy, they would say ‘America,’ and I was saying, ‘Yeah, our president did that.'”
