Actor Sean Penn tells S.F. State students not to 'sell out'

[stephanie]

Obambam has Oprah...Kucinich has...Sean Penn


Michael Cabanatuan, Chronicle Staff Writer

Saturday, December 8, 2007


Actor-director Sean Penn issued a non endorsement endorsement of Democratic presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich on Friday in a speech to nearly 400 San Francisco State University students, urging his audience not to fall into the trap of voting for someone only because they could win.

"We've got Iowa coming up; New Hampshire on its ass," said Penn. "Do we sell out for electability?"

Penn, who spoke from a low wooden stage in the Creative Arts Building in front of a "Kucinich for President" banner, made it clear from the start that he was not issuing a traditional endorsement, a political tradition he said he abhorred as much as voting for someone based on their electability.

Kucinich, a congressman for Ohio who has run for president before, is fighting to stay out of last place in the polls. Most polls put his support in the low single digits, far behind front-runners Sens. Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton.

That shouldn't matter, Penn told students.

"I'm not going to tell you who to vote for," he said. "I'm going to talk about this guy. But my interest, and I hope yours, is in the Constitution of the United States."

Penn's speech wandered from topic to topic. It included his thoughts about President Bush's apparent disagreement with his own administration's assessment of Iran's nuclear weapons capabilities, the mortgage crisis, and the electorate's tendency to pick candidates based on "the cult of personality."

But the Oscar winner, who lives in Marin County, seemed reluctant to use his own popularity to promote Kucinich.

Even as he urged students to "educate themselves on the Kucinich platform" and praised the congressman as the only candidate who displayed integrity at the recent Las Vegas debates, Penn seemed eager to distance himself from what's become a political cliche: celebrity political endorsements.

"This is not going to be a sound bite," he said. "Not if I can help it."


read the rest if you can read it without laughing...
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/articl.../BA1HTQE1F.DTL

[Abbey Marie]

I saw a clip of this. Penn looked and sounded like a homeless guy.

[Hugh Lincoln]

Didn't his brother do that cool song, "Romeo in Black Jeans" or something? I always wondered why he didn't do more.

[nevadamedic]

Obambam has Oprah...Kucinich has...Sean Penn


Michael Cabanatuan, Chronicle Staff Writer

Saturday, December 8, 2007


Actor-director Sean Penn issued a non endorsement endorsement of Democratic presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich on Friday in a speech to nearly 400 San Francisco State University students, urging his audience not to fall into the trap of voting for someone only because they could win.

"We've got Iowa coming up; New Hampshire on its ass," said Penn. "Do we sell out for electability?"

Penn, who spoke from a low wooden stage in the Creative Arts Building in front of a "Kucinich for President" banner, made it clear from the start that he was not issuing a traditional endorsement, a political tradition he said he abhorred as much as voting for someone based on their electability.

Kucinich, a congressman for Ohio who has run for president before, is fighting to stay out of last place in the polls. Most polls put his support in the low single digits, far behind front-runners Sens. Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton.

That shouldn't matter, Penn told students.

"I'm not going to tell you who to vote for," he said. "I'm going to talk about this guy. But my interest, and I hope yours, is in the Constitution of the United States."

Penn's speech wandered from topic to topic. It included his thoughts about President Bush's apparent disagreement with his own administration's assessment of Iran's nuclear weapons capabilities, the mortgage crisis, and the electorate's tendency to pick candidates based on "the cult of personality."

But the Oscar winner, who lives in Marin County, seemed reluctant to use his own popularity to promote Kucinich.

Even as he urged students to "educate themselves on the Kucinich platform" and praised the congressman as the only candidate who displayed integrity at the recent Las Vegas debates, Penn seemed eager to distance himself from what's become a political cliche: celebrity political endorsements.

"This is not going to be a sound bite," he said. "Not if I can help it."


read the rest if you can read it without laughing...
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/articl.../BA1HTQE1F.DTL

Sean Penn is an idiot. How many times has he been arrested?

[Hugh Lincoln]

The endorsement you really want: Woody Harrelson.

[nevadamedic]

The endorsement you really want: Woody Harrelson.

Nope, that would be Oprah.