Woody Allen Slams President Bush While Praising Bill Clinton

December 14th, 2005 4:57 PM

In this week’s edition of the New York Observer (hat tip to the Huffington Post), famed actor, writer, and movie director, Woody Allen, cast aspersions on President Bush, while gushing over former President Clinton. At the end of a piece by Suzy Hansen covering a range of topics from his past movies, his current one, and his life at the age of 70, the article concluded with Hansen asking Allen’s opinion of a number of people. When asked about George W. Bush, Allen responded:

“Arguably the worst administration in the history of the United States. I didn’t start out with any hostility; I started out rooting for him. I was rooting for him, certainly, after 9/11, and when I was in Europe a few days after Sept. 11 and people were asking me questions about him—because I was from New York and people thought I was an expert—I was saying, ‘Well, I hope he’ll do a good job, I’m optimistic, I think he will.’ He certainly got off to a good start and showed sympathy and enthusiasm and said all the right things. But he didn’t. He let the country down brutally.”

His feelings about President Clinton?

“I always liked Bill Clinton. I campaigned for him before he was first elected President, and always regarded the Monica Lewinsky thing as laughable evidence of a prudish population and thought the whole thing was totally absurd, and that he was very smart and would have—if he ran today, he’d be elected in a landslide.”

It's certainly hard to imagine Allen finding a sex scandal "laughable."