The Intellectual Musings of Matt Damon

"It's like really scary, you know?"


My father used to have a ready retort when someone he was talking with would quote some third party individual's opinion about something. His question would always be: "Where does he tend bar?"

Such is my reaction to the never-ending opinions being offered out of Hollywood to us common folk. Now we can add "action hero" actor Matt Damon to that ever-expanding list of Hollywood know-nothings who are decrying the choice of Sarah Palin as John McCain's VP running mate. It seems this latter-day Lionel Barrymore, who has made his career starring in nonsensical movies about some guy named Jason Bourne (or was it Jeremy) and the evil CIA, has "misgivings" about the choice of Palin and her potential to be president in the future.

Sprinkled with a liberal dose of "you knows" and "reallys", Damon has explained to an AP reporter why Palin's candidacy is a "joke".

"I think there is a really good chance that Sarah Palin could be president. And I think that's a really scary thing because I don't know anything about her. I don't think in 8 weeks I'm going to know anything about her....."

Fousesquawk comment: That's because you are a know-nothing, Damon.

"...I know that she was a mayor of a really, really small town. And she's Governor of Alaska for less than two years. I just don't understand...I think the pick was made for political purposes, but in terms of governance, it's a disaster."

Fousesquawk comment: Well, Mr Political Science Professor, certainly political considerations went into the pick. Welcome to the real world, genius. Of course, Professor Damon doesn't weigh in on Barack Obama's experience as a "community organizer", invisible term as state senator and less than one term as a do-nothing US Senator-Oh, sorry. He has done one thing as US Senator-run for president.

But there is more:

"You do the actuary tables, and there's a one out of three chance, if not more, that McCain doesn't survive his first term and it will be President Palin. And it really....we were talking about it earlier...and it's like a really bad Disney movie. The hockey mom. "I'm just a hockey mom from Alaska." And she's the president. And it's like she's facing down Vladimir Putin, you know, and using folksy stuff she learned at the hockey rink. It's absurd. It's totally absurd. And I don't understand why more people aren't talking about how absurd it is. It's a really terrifying possibility. The fact that we've gotten this far and we're that close to this being a reality is crazy, crazy.

Fousesquawk comment: "We were talking about it earlier.." Who? You and George Clooney?

Bad Disney movie? How about a bad Damon movie?

And why not this: "I'm just a community organizer"?

"I need to know if she really thinks dinosaurs were here 4,000 years ago, that's an important... I want to know that. I really do.....because she's going to have the nuclear codes, you know."

Fousesquawk comment: No, Matt, she doesn't. Now you really know.

Enough. I can't take any more.

It's sad that so many reporters and so many people really care about what these Hollywood flakes think about the world. We already know that 99% of them want the Democrats to win. They are entitled to spout off all they want, and we are entitled ro respond. The fact of the matter is opinions of celebrities are worth nothing more than the opinion of the local bartender.

Or, as another great philosopher once said, "Opinions are like noses; everybody has one." (Only he didn't say noses.)