- How have you reacted to the first 6 months of the Obama presidency?

I am hopeful about it.  I think he is doing the best job possible.

- What acting role do you recall most passionately and why?

It was for a movie – Street Smart. In the late 80s with Christopher Reeve, who played the intrepid reporter. I played the role of Leo Smalls, a peculiar character.  A pimp. It was fun.  As an actor, I like playing different and varied roles.

- How do you feel about the recent “beer summit” with the President, Prof. Gates, and the Cambridge political officer?

I agree with the President that the police in this situation were acting stupidly.  I think they should have apologized.  The beer summit was a smart move on the part of the President to diffuse a stupid situation.

- How can we tell if the Obama admin — after four or eight years — is truly successful…what would that mean for the United States / the world?

I’m not that smart!

- What, if anything, has most disappointed you about the politics of Obama’s age?

Nothing.  The people who are against this administration are acting the way you’d expect them to.  I am not disappointed in the President. If you watch Washington, nothing happens there without a fight.

- Are Americans ignorant about the homelessness that results from natural disasters outside of the U.S. — if they are, how can we as a nation do that?

No.  I don’t think we are ignorant.  We have a lot of information that gives us the lay of the land as far as disasters are concerned and their effects in the US and aboard. We know what destruction looks like – we need to learn what preparation looks like. For hurricanes and other disasters, more of us need to be concerned with the elements of planning involved in staying alive and able-bodied so that we can help our families and community members who need assistance when disasters strike. That’s key.

- Lastly, do you believe young people are doing enough to help rebuild Katrina-afflicted homes as well as major American urban centers?

I don’t think it is a job for young people alone.  It is a job for the government.  It’s a job for individuals, families and communities; states and so forth.  We’ve all got to own up to our parts.

According to a new ScoopDaily/Zogby poll, 30% of Americans between the ages of 18 and 24 believe that President Obama is “abandoning many of the progressive causes he championed during his campaign.” In addition, only 44% of 18- to 24-year-olds firmly believe he is still “working as hard as he can to fulfill” those same progressive causes.

Is President Obama abandoning liberal principles he heralded during the campaign? Compared to a slimmer averaged 20% across the older demographics, 18 to 24 year-olds say yes.

Overall, only slightly more than half (54%) of Americans view Obama as sticking to his campaign goals.

Minorities seem to give the first black president the benefit of the doubt more often. African-American (74%), Asian (60%) and Jewish (64%) citizens all believe in Obama’s work toward progressive causes significantly more than white or Christian Americans. Hispanics (53%) are the only minority who isn’t as confident.

Ideological inclinations provide little surprise, as liberals backed Obama and conservatives showed less faith. Conservatives and moderates agreed at the same rate (23%) about abandonment, but twice as many conservatives answered neither yes nor no, perhaps because a ‘yes’ would nullify their dislike for his policies while ‘no’ would give him credit for accomplishing the change he promised.

“I think that growing disillusionment with Obama is not a surprise. In the first year of his presidency, he does not have a winning record toward meeting the promises he’s made,” responded Mary Jane O’Malley, a 2009 graduate of the University of Denver and a Tulsa Corps Teach for America volunteer.

However, O’Malley notes that the that notion of abandonment is likely “premature.”

Gillian Evans, a sophomore Georgetown University, is among the most troubled about Obama’s presidency on the anniversary of his election.

“Not that the alternative candidate provided much to chose from, and I don’t blame young Americans for overwhelmingly supporting Obama,” she concedes.

“But I do think that their expectations were astronomical and unfounded,” Evans says, “and most Americans who were swept up in Obama fever believed that all Americans were behind Obama.”

Adelaide Elm Kimball, a board member of Vote Smart, the nonpartisan electoral outreach organization, cited “the post-election hard realities of the national economy” as deeply entrenched problems that will not be resolved overnight.

“The disservice that…both major parties do the public is lead them to expect that solutions can be quickly found for our enormous problems,” continued Kimball, “Young people are no different than the rest of us in that respect.”

Matt Bai, a senior writer for The New York Times Magazine who has examined President Obama as well as former President Clinton’s centrist political persona and triangulation, warns young Americans that “Centrists always disappoint, and Obama is a centrist.”

Still, he adds, “Obama as a sellout seems like a pretty tough case to make, given the record, but younger voters have less context and more fervor.”

Young Americans, in particular, said that the administration was waging a formidable online campaign to win the hearts and minds of Americans.

Steve Ross, a former Michigan-based Obama for America staffer, said the administration has proactively articulated its case for reform via online townhalls and frequent use of new media / social networking like Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube to disseminate their positions, ones that are still unclear to many Americans.

Ross added that Obama has effectively “confront[ed] the malicious lies being spread by opponents of reform” on its ‘Reality Check’ Website.

More than half of eighteen to twenty-four year olds (55.9%) said Obama was effectively courting those undecided about health care reform, while just over a quarter (25.4%) disagreed. In the 35-54 demographic, the spread was more even among those polled — 44.2% said yes, while nearly 33% disagreed.

Sally Satel, a practicing psychiatrist, identified the pattern as “say[ing] more about the extent to which age cohorts rely on the Internet for their news.”

Satel is a resident fellow specializing in medical research at the American Enterprise Institute, a center-right, D.C.-based think-tank.

“The 18-24 demographic may be most impressed [with Obama's health plan] but are the least likely to engage their congressmen, so the relatively high rating from them is unlikely to pay off in terms of efforts to lobby Congress on health reform.”

Acknowledging the centrality of young people in the health care debate, Joseph Antos, an AEI fellow in retirement policy, said, “There is no doubt that the Internet generation will be in charge the next time we tackle health reform.”

In other words, President Obama must lay the groundwork for future overhauls devised and implemented by Generataion Y.

Eugene Resnick, a special youth writer for Newsweek magazine, said Obama has been successful in lobbying for reform — specifically in the online sphere.

He added, however, “They could do more. I just think health care is not a topic that drives many young people who are the bulk of online organizing, so it’s a challenge.”

Resnick also said that could further bolster and utilize their Organizing for America structure evolved from the presidential campaign.

Sebastian Caliri, a Yale sophomore and molecular biology major, disagrees that Obama, in the final analysis, has won the message war.

“All you need to do is look at his declining approval ratings to know that he has been ineffective.”

Caliri, a prize-winning researcher of both Harvard and Yale Medical Schools, added that the White House is still clouding the big picture.

“Reform needs to based on somehow mandating more preventative medicine and adjusting the incentive system for physicians so that it’s based on the quality of care rather than the price of treatments.”

And I am not at all surprised. Between 85-90% of Americans will marry by middle age. And those who don’t actually marry generally fall in love and form an attachment to someone anyway. The drive to love and form a pairbond is ancient. I think this drive evolved at least 4 million years ago or earlier–whenever our forebears began to descend from the fast disappearing trees of Africa to start a new life on the ground.

As a result we have primordial brain systems for the sex drive (which gets us out looking for a range of partners), romantic love (which enables us to focus on one individual), and attachment (which enables us to form a pairbond with this individual and remain attached at least long enough to rear a single child through infancy as a team).

Pairbonding is human. And inspite of our many contemporary variations on this theme, the vast majority of people in almost every society in the world eventually settle with one partner (or a series of consecutive partners) during their life.

Survey respondents would tap Bono, alongside California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger – interestingly both foreign-born citizens of Ireland and Austria, respectively – to serve as the chief celebrity counselors to the Obama White House.

Both Bono, 49, and Schwarzenegger, 62, boast political or humanitarian experience as well as broad popularity across the global stage.

Despite their age barrier with Millennials, according to voters surveyed, Bono and the Governator transcend appeal along older generational lines when their work was at the pulse of American pop culture.

But they remain at the prime of their status to influence public policy, if not entertainment, based on young people’s responses.

Next came champion golfer Tiger Woods, actor and good samaritan Brad Pitt, and television heroine Oprah Winfrey.

Along generational lines, significantly more 18- to 24-year-olds favor Oprah (14.6%) compared to the other age demographics. (Twenty-five- to thirty-four-year-olds said 4.9% and 35- 54-year-olds said 7%.)

Michelle Stein, a senior at Washington University in St. Louis, said she was surprised by Oprah’s low figures.

“Oprah, with her connections to the Obamas and to the presidential campaign, appears the natural choice for a celebrity adviser. But perhaps that is why she didn’t receive as many votes as one would expect – many view her as already too close to the administration.

“Why anyone would vote for Megan Fox boggles the mind, unless they are merely hungry for some White House eye candy,” she added.

Overall Stein said the poll “show[ed] an intriguing picture of the role that American citizens see celebrities playing in Obama’s Administration.”

“Bono has been out front at the same level consistently,” explained Courtney Hazlett, an entertainment reporter for MSNBC.com.

She attributes his top rank to his trustworthiness in the public eye as a “regular guy” and accessible musical icon, notwithstanding his Dublin roots.

A longtime humanitarian, Bono has organized dozens of benefit concerts, crusaded against AIDS in Africa, and – most recently – penned a regular column for The New York Times. His good deeds have led to international recognition: knighthood by British royalty, a Nobel Peace Prize nomination, and Time Person of the Year.

Has Oprah and her “effect” reached its point of saturation? Hazlett says no, although “people don’t listen to her as much because she’s diversified in terms of the campaigns and products she endorses.”

“On the other hand, Bono is slow and steady, nothing flashy–in some ways, the biggest superstar in the lot.”

Frank Sesno, a CNN special correspondent and director of the George Washington School of Media & Public Affairs, said the intersection of political and celebrity culture is “a longstanding trend that’s taken different forms at different times.”

“Ben Bradlee was a pal of JFK’s, George Will dined with Reagan, and Obama has his followers. Is it more noticeable now? Yes. Is it more insidious now? Not sure of that.”

In fact, Obama has already hosted a range of celebrities, including Stevie Wonder and the Jonas Brothers, as well as noted liberal and conservative political writers.

But what about those celebrities excluded from limited Zogby-Scoop44 multiple-choice?

Kit Halvorsen, a UCLA sophomore and philosophy major, said most celebrities aren’t “natural choices” for the presidential advisory gig.

“What insight would they bring?”

He cites Shepard Fairey, creator of the Obama “HOPE” poster, as a “creative and perceptive mind” Obama might consider tapping.

“I’m impressed with Fairey,” Halvorsen said, “because he’s an independent thinker who understands youth culture and an expert of alternative media.”