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With his recent op-ed piece in The New York Times, George Clooney has become the latest big name to publicly state that Joe Biden ought to step aside and let Democrats pick another candidate for President in 2024. However, unlike the other big names, Clooney is not an elected politician or political commentator; rather, he is a Hollywood star and significant financial donor to the Democrat party.
Do Clooney’s words have any clout, however, with the average New Yorker? To find out, WOR street reporter Natalie Migliore hit the bricks in Midtown. She appeared on 710 WOR’s Len Berman and Michael Riedel in the Morning program and found the overall impression was along the line of “hmm, that’s nice.”
Migliore found one person who clearly wasn’t swayed by Clooney’s notoriety. “Why is being famous a prerequisite for listening to what somebody has to say? I’m interested in kind of thoughtful discourse. I’m not interested in bloviations from people who are impressed by themselves, to feel free to go on and on about their thoughts about the universe.”
Another man took the same stance when Migliore asked for his thoughts. “He can express his opinion however he wants. I don’t care one way or the other what George Clooney thinks about what the political sort of day-to-day stuff needs to be, so if he wants to say it, fine; you know, I’m not listening to him to be some sort of arbiter of what our politics or lives should be.”
One woman, however, may have summed up the overall indifference on the street toward Clooney’s piece when she said celebrities are out of touch with the concerns of the commoners. “The real world is working every single day, trying to survive for your family every single day, struggling, not having, sometimes, nothing to eat, and you have to push through every single day to survive- not only for yourself but for your family, especially when you have small children.”
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