Is anyone taking Woody Harrelson seriously?

What a strange society we live in. We love our bread and circuses, and don't give a rip about real-life issues.

And when a celebrity says something, we're more likely to give it credence than if Joe Lunchmeat says it.

I have to admit, I have a few "star-power" types I pay attention to. I always thought ex-basketball star Charles Barkley was a hoot, like when he recently said he may run for Governor of Alabama and said even he couldn't screw that place up.

But actor Woody Harrelson recently spoke with a Salon.com writer Andrew O'Hehir, and said that while JFK was the last great president we've had, Jimmy Carter was "pretty great."

Huh? The Jimmy Carter? The guy who oversaw a rare economic triple-double (double figures in interest rates, inflation, and unemployment)? The one who sat on his hands while the Iranians held hostages, and eventually launched a helicopter attack that would have been laughable if the situation wasn't so serious?

Yeah. That Jimmy Carter.

One must consider the source. Ol' Woody has been huge on loosening our marijuana laws, and has admitted to smoking a number or three every so often. Maybe the stuff really does distort one's perceptions. Uhh, cool, man ...

But enough of that. Let's go to the horse's ... uhh, mouth:

"Obama has the chance of becoming JFK or LBJ. I think JFK was one of our last great presidents, although I thought Carter was pretty great too. LBJ could have been a great president if he hadn't gotten bogged down in war, but that was quite a war to get bogged down in."

And about Obama?

"I think there's a lot of persuasive and powerful people around Obama. For a president to make his own decisions, I think that's a rarity. Even someone who we think of as our guy -- this is a guy with integrity, a guy who cares, for the first time in a long time -- in the Oval Office, even with him we don't really know who's pulling the strings. I think of every president as being a marionette. Whether he's any different, I don't know. Certainly his military advisors all want him to prosecute this war to the end, just as they did in Vietnam with LBJ."

I wonder if anyone's taking Woody seriously? And I wonder what Charles Barkley thinks of it all?

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