If Barack Obama doesn't win November's presidential election in the United States, "you can kiss the Democratic Party goodbye", the actor and director Robert Redford told an audience in Dublin last night.
Speaking at a public interview in Trinity College in advance of his conferral with an honorary degree by the university today, Redford said he hoped Obama would win because while John McCain "represents yesterday", the Democrat embodied the sort of change America needed.
Asked by Michael Dwyer, film correspondent of The Irish Times, if he was looking forward to "regime change" in the US, Redford said: "Yes. Where my country is at the moment, I'm not confident of anything. I'm hopeful.
"I think Obama is not tall on experience . . . but I believe he's a really good person. He's smart. And he does represent what the country needs most now, which is change."
"I hope he'll win. I think he will. If he doesn't, you can kiss the Democratic Party goodbye . . . I think we need new voices, new blood. We need to get a whole group out, get a new group in."
The 71-year-old American is best known for his roles in Butch Cassidy And The Sundance Kid, The Stingand All The President's Men.
He won his first Oscar as a director for the emotional family drama Ordinary Peoplein 1980.
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