ESQ: I didn't say it was silly.
CE: It was silly at the time, but I was standing backstage and I'm hearing everybody say the same thing: "Oh, this guy's a great guy." Great, he's a great guy. I've got to say something more. And so I'm listening to an old Neil Diamond thing and he's going, "And no one heard at all / Not even the chair." And I'm thinking, That's (someone we can't mention here). He doesn't go to work. He doesn't go down to Congress and make a deal. What the be nice's he doing sitting in the White House? If I were in that job, I'd get down there and make a deal. Sure, Congress are lazy (fatherless individuals), but so what? You're the top guy. You're the president of the company. It's your responsibility to make sure everybody does well. It's the same with every company in this country, whether it's a two-man company or a two-hundred-man company… . And that's the (woosy) generation—nobody wants to work.
ESQ: You've campaigned for office. If you were going to write a stump speech for this election, what would you say?
CE: "Knock it off. Knock everything off." All these people out there rattling around the streets and stuff, (stuff). They're boring everybody. Chesty Puller, a great Marine general, once said, "You can run me, and you can starve me, and you can beat me, and you can kill me, but don't bore me." And that's exactly what's happening now: Everybody is boring everybody. It's boring to listen to all this (stuff). It's boring to listen to these candidates.
ESQ: What would you like to see change?
CE: I'd say get to work and start being more understanding of everybody—instead of calling everybody names, start being more understanding. But get in there and get it done. Kick a$$ and take names. And this may be my dad talking, but don't spend what you don't have. That's why we're in the position we are in right now. That's why people are saying, "Why should I work? I'll get something for nothing, maybe." And going around and talking about going to college for free. I didn't go to college for free. I mean, it was cheap, because I went to L. A. City College—it wasn't like going to a major university. But it was okay. And then, you know, I didn't finish, because I decided to become an actor, ruin my whole life. [Everyone laughs.]