Beatty Hints His Presidential Bid Unlikely

Warren Beatty, star of the movies "Dick Tracy" and "Bulworth," took the ARCO Forum platform last night to voice his political views, while dispelling rumors about a run for the presidency in the upcoming election.

After fueling expectations for a more active role in politics in an opinion piece he wrote for the New York Times in September, Beatty drew attention to issues important to him during the speech, which was sponsored by the Institute of Politics.

Beatty, who last week received the Eleanor Roosevelt Award from the Southern California chapter of Americans for Democratic Action, opened his speech by disputing the general feeling that America is thriving economically.

He pointed to statistics to dispel that idea, saying that one out of every three children born in L.A. live beneath the poverty line and homicide is still the leading cause of death among children under 18.

The actor bemoaned the increase in the disparity of wealth, targeting the astronomical rise of salaries of CEOs.

Heather A. Woodruff '03 opened the question-and-answer session by pointing to the incredibly high salaries of actors, leaving Beatty speechless.

Beatty expressed dissatisfaction with the lack of activism around these problems from the Democratic Party and asked, "Do we belong to a party that sweeps this stuff under the rug?"

He criticized the current Democratic front runners--Al Gore Jr. '69 and Bill Bradley--for drifting too far towards the center and not offering the American people a real choice in the elections.

The crowd broke out into applause when Beatty declared, "We don't need a third party. We need a second one."

When asked whether he would run for president, Beatty responded that he had no political consultants, but he did not block out the possibility of running in presidential elections in future years.

Diffusing attention from himself, Beatty voiced support for Mario Cuomo and Jesse Jackson, among others, as potential presidential candidates.

Throughout the speech Beatty called for extensive campaign finance reform and universal healthcare.

Discussing the extent to which special interests and rich lobbies control Congress, Beatty said, "If we trust democracy, it's time to pay for it," he said.

Beatty reaffirmed his pro-choice stance on abortion and stated his opposition to the death penalty.

He also pushed for gun control, but said that nothing will happen until big money interests are taken out of politics and power taken from the lobbies, particularly the NRA.

"It's all about the money," was a mantra Beatty repeated during the talk.

Beatty represents a recent trend of pop culture figures, including Jesse Ventura, Donald Trump, and Cybill Shepherd, who are using their recognition to enter and affect politics.

Mickey Edwards, a former member of Congress and Adams Lecturer in Legislative Politics at the Kennedy School of Government, explained this recent phenomenon in an e-mail message. He wrote, "people who have achieved some measure of celebrity sometimes also achieve an over-inflated sense of their own importance."

Beatty also met with about 80 undergraduates prior to the speech at an informal Pizza and Politics discussion.

Micah T. Lewin '03, who attended the gathering, said of Beatty, "he's honest and not afraid to say what he believes,"

IOP Projects Committee Chair Marc Stad '01 emphasized that a grass roots desire among the undergraduates motivated the IOP to invite the actor. He accounted for this popularity because of Beatty's mixture of "politics and pop culture."