Robert Redford Excited Over Lame-Duck's Departure
ROBERT REDFORD is looking forward to U.S. President-elect BARACK OBAMA’s imminent inauguration more than most - because he can’t wait to see "lame-duck" GEORGE W. BUSH leave the White House.
The Hollywood legend spoke of his excitement about the controversial president’s departure, ahead of Obama being sworn into office on Tuesday (20Jan09).
And the veteran actor took time out of his promotional duties for his Sundance Film Festival on Thursday (15Jan09) to tell reporters about his optimism for America’s future.
He says, "I’m personally excited just because I’m glad to see the gang that couldn’t shoot straight get out of there. I’m glad to see them gone.
"You’ve got a lame-duck guy going out, but he sure has done a lot of quacking in the last while. So therefore, the sooner they’re gone, the better, and therefore, I’m very excited by the change that’s coming." Meanwhile, Redford hopes that a Democratic administration in Washington, D.C. will mean the arts receive more government funding.
He adds, "They (the arts) were fighting the political machine of the extreme right that saw art as some kind of threat.
"So I think that’s going to change. What I would like to see is, a country like ours should certainly be subsidising, a little bit more than it is, art in general. Other countries do. They’ve cut it down to the bone. There’s practically nothing left." Redford has used the Utah-based festival - which he co-founded in 1978 - as a platform to publicly criticise Bush in the past.
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