Hearing Matt Damon say he was not a fan of President Barack Obama last week on CNN's 'Piers Morgan Tonight' may have come as a surprise to those who have followed the popular actor's
liberal politics for the past few years.
In fact, Damon spent many days campaigning around the country for Obama when he was a presidential candidate in 2008. Together with his friend Ben Affleck, Damon did talk shows, hosted events, gave interviews and allowed the Democratic Party to get as much mileage out of him as possible within the constraints of his busy work schedule.
When he canvassed the nation for Obama, Damon was impressed with the candidate's idealism and ambition to make significant change in areas like poverty, health care and education.
On those issues, Damon now believes President Obama has compromised too much.
He told Morgan, "Obama has misinterpreted his mandate and doubled down on a lot of things." The actor has also criticized the president on not finding an effective reform for Wall Street practices, and he is still waiting to hear the hows and whys of the troop buildup in Afghanistan.
Even though Damon still believes that the President is "brilliant" and a "deep thinker," he is especially upset over the state of world hunger.
"In his State of the Union speech, he didn't even say the word 'poverty,'" Damon, a spokesman for hunger relief organization Feeding America, told Morgan. "You've got millions of people languishing in it."
Now shooting the Cameron Crow film 'We Bought A Zoo,' where he plays a zookeeper, Damon would make an excellent political candidate himself if he weren't such a popular actor. He has said he is not interested in running for office, yet between his diversified acting roles, education and political activism, he could be a great asset should he ever reconsider.
Damon founded H20 African Foundation, the charity division of Running the Sahara, which merged with WaterPartners in 2009. He supports the ONE Campaign to fight AIDS and poverty in Third World countries, and he is an ambassador for OneXOne, a non-profit foundation that improves the lives of kids around the world.