Actor Matt Damon Abandons Obama: He Went Off Script as President

Actor Matt Damon campaigned for Barack Obama in 2008, but the Academy Award-winning screen writer says the president has gone off script and misread his mandate. Damon’s comments are an indicator that Obama is losing the support of the Hollywood elite who form a key Democratic constituency.

Matt Damon

During a taping of Piers Morgan’s CNN program to be aired tonight, when Morgan asked Damon whether he is happy with the way Obama is running the country, Damon replied with a terse, “No.”

“I really think he misinterpreted his mandate,” Damon said. “A friend of mind said to me the other day, I thought it was a great line, I no longer hope for audacity.”

Damon, who is appearing on “Piers Morgan Tonight” to promote his new film, “The Adjustment Bureau,” also was critical of the president’s education policy.

“This idea that we’re testing kids, and we’re tying teachers’ salaries to how the kids are performing on tests . . . that kind of mechanized thinking has nothing to do with higher order thinking. We’re training them — we’re not teaching.”