Matt Damon rips Palin

**TheMadHatter** · 09-10-2008

Damon describes my worries to a "t". It's pathetic that Americans can get excited about a woman so fundamentally flawed and inexperienced for her position. It truly shows the idiocy of conservative America and how the enlightened of us need to step in and take control of this country once again.

**Gino** · 09-10-2008

Isn't this the dude who's screwing that Silverman chick?

**IceColdBrewski** · 09-10-2008

He's just mad because Ben Affleck dumped him.

**Mr. Body** · 09-10-2008

100% correct. My opinion of him shot up.

But I think his percentage chance of McCain lasting one term is a little low. It's not 1 in 3, probably less.

**florige** · 09-10-2008

Matt Damon has always been insightful on the issues.

**Aggie Hoopsfan** · 09-10-2008

Any time some Hollywood idealist goes off on a candidate I'm supporting, I know I picked the right one

**efrem1** · 09-10-2008

Is Matt from Massachusetts? With all of those experts and enlightend ones up there, they can't construct a highway under Boston correctly and keep costs down.

**efrem1** · 09-10-2008

Hey Matt!! Here is a story about experts governing in Massachusetts. Howdya like them apples?

"We Needn't Panic"
Posted by Jon_Keller

So sayeth Gov. Deval Patrick in this dismayingly smug discussion of the state's deepening fiscal crisis with my colleague Joe Shortsleeve.

There's plenty here to appall even the most ardent Patrick fan: the glib dismissal of concerns over our status as the runaway national leader in per capita debt by noting that we're also "one of the highest-income states" (actually, we rank seventh in household income), as if that's relevant to the downside of soaring debt - linkage of our fiscal future to volatile financial markets and continued enabling of the avoidance of hard short-term political choices; the presumptiousness of his claims of financial-planning omnipotence, when it looks like the same old bond-lawyer crowd that's been cranking out bad policy on Beacon Hill for decades; and, most disturbingly, the continuing failure to grasp and respond to the political mood of the electorate.

Patrick knows better than anyone how hidebound and change-resistant the Massachusetts establishment - the legislature, the public-employee unions, assorted private-sector interests, and activist groups with political grease - have proven to be. They've deep-sixed every major reform he's proposed, from pension and health-care cost containment to local-option taxes to flagmen, crippling his ability to deliver on the promised property-tax relief that is his most important political promise. Looming ahead: payback from livid voters through the vehicle of ballot question #1, the repeal of the state income tax.

I'd say panic is precisely what the governor ought to be advocating. No, not run-on-the-banks, stockpiling canned tuna panic, but the channeling of a panicked public's anger and political energy in the form of pressure on balky special interests to quit stalling and start cooperating with the major makeover this state needs, lest the remainder of its working class taxpayers be driven out of state to join their family members. If the governor had been able to convert any of that frustration into political leverage over the past year or so, he might have more progress to show beleaguered taxpayers. His agenda might now be their vehicle for fighting back and sending a message, not Question #1.

But no. Instead, the governor and the legislature gorge on the low-hanging fruit of gay marriage, biotech investment, and clean energy promotion (all good ideas, no doubt) and pronounce the state well-fed, to the amazement of a starving populace. Thirteen weeks and counting until the voters show Patrick and Beacon Hill what panic really feels like.

**dg7md** · 09-11-2008

Never thought I'd publicly agree with a celebrity about a political stance, but it's true. I've always liked Damon as an actor anyway.

**MannyIsGod** · 09-11-2008