Woody Allen Touts Obama For Dictator

I've never heard Woody Allen make a political statement before. I've been lucky, until now. He's reported to have said this to a Spanish newspaper recently:

I am pleased with Obama. I think he’s brilliant. The Republican Party should get out of his way and stop trying to hurt him.... [I]t would be good…if he could be a dictator for a few years because he could do a lot of good things quickly.

An attempt at humor? Maybe, but I doubt it. Apart from a clever line here and there, Woody Allen isn't funny. I wrote in December, 2008:

Woody Allen released a new film a few months ago, Vicky Christine Barcelona. I haven't seen it and don't intend to; every Woody Allen film I have seen — about a half dozen or so, more in parts — has been pointless, plotless, and not particularly funny or interesting. But I have to give the filmmaker credit where it's due. He is one of the cleverest guys around.

He's made a healthy living doing what he wants for more than 40 years now by producing pointless, plotless, and not particularly funny or interesting films. They usually star very dishy damsels, too. Not bad for a guy who's not insightful, handsome, or talented. (Except as a musician. He does play a mean clarinet.)

This latest incarnation, an unadmitted rip-off of Henry James' Wings of the Dove, shows every sign of being more of the same. That is no doubt why he's the darling of the Anti crowd. Since anything with a hint of moral or mental health (not to mention a movie with an actual story) is anathema to them, Allen is their perfect artist.

And that was the complimentary part. [Read the rest here.]

So, I'm not really surprised to read that he loves Obama and wants him to be dictator in order to "do a lot of good things quickly." Maybe he and NYT columnist Thomas Friedman, who says pretty much the same thing about the Chinese government, can discuss it over brie and cappuccino at a tony bistro in Paris.

[Hat tip Jonah Goldberg at NRO.]