Did Clint Eastwood lose the plot at Romney's convention?

[jsr]

Source: Reuters

(Reuters) - Republicans may have made Mitt Romney's day with the presidential nomination he long sought, but it was Dirty Harry himself who nearly hijacked the show with a rambling diatribe against President Barack Obama - addressed to an empty chair.

Hollywood icon Clint Eastwood brought his star power and trademark gravelly voice to the stage of the convention hall in Tampa on Thursday, jetting in as a surprise last-minute speaker to warm up the crowd for Romney's acceptance speech.

Eastwood's cameo appearance, including an ad-libbed monologue with an imaginary Obama in an empty chair, seemed to thrill many in the audience, but was widely panned by observers across the political spectrum.

"Clint, my hero, is coming across as sad and pathetic," legendary Chicago film critic Roger Ebert said in a message on Twitter.com. "He didn't need to do this to himself."


Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/08/31/us-usa-campaign-eastwood-idUSBRE87T1BX20120831

[wake.up.america]

1. I think of the RNC convention and I think of Clint Eastwood talking to an empty chair...

Amazing impression. A staunch conservative leaves no doubt that many in the GOP are lacking the mental acuity to lead this country.

[Cha]

6. Here's a great quote pertaining to that from another DUer..

Adenoid_Hynkel (10,345 posts)

"8. an angry old man frustrated with an imaginary version of the president

Eastwood's speech was the perfect illustration of everything wrong with today's GOP"


http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1014&pid=213871

[JoePhilly]

30. +1

[wordpix]

35. great quote

[bulloney]

23. Republican hypocrisy at it best! They always try to hang the Hollywood albatross

around the Democrats, and yet, they kept building up this "mystery speaker" during the convention who turns out to be a Hollywood actor.

Truth is, I can name you more Hollywood actors who have held political offices as Republicans than Democrats:
Clint Eastwood
Ronald Reagan
Fred Thompson
Fred Grandy
Arnold Schwarznegger
Charlton Heston

The only Democrat I can think of is Al Franken.

[Brother Buzz]

39. Zelda

Sheila Kuehl had a distinguished career in California politics. She retired when she was term-limited out of office

[Bernardo de La Paz]

2. Which suit emptiest? The one in the chair, the one at the podium, or the one nominated? nt

[MrMickeysMom]

3. Roger that, Roger...

Eastwood will go out being remembered like Charlie Heston was... Old, confused and slope brow / knuckle dragging all the way home to his comfortable stuffed chair.

[Prometheus Bound]

8. Yup, that knuckle-dragging image sure suits him tonight.

[SunSeeker]

4. Brutal. And spot on.

[Cha]

5. That's a good one from

Ebert! Thanks jsr.

[cyclezealot]

13. All of his movies were crap anyway

With the exception of Gran Torino. Lousy , macho dialogue .. No more Eastwood movies for us. Ever. he's getting too old to direct anyway.

[tblue37]

14. I liked _The Unforgiven_ and _Letters from Iwo Jima_.

[cyclezealot]

15. Guess if you are into War movies.

Iwo Jima was an exception. Never liked John Wayne much, so we go to few shoot em up films. True Iwo Jima did honor our brave soldiers.. My top notch war film would have been Saving Pvt Ryan. But, that was a Spielberg flic.

[wordpix]

34. the Good, the Bad...was a great movie

[1monster]

36. The Outlaw Josey Wales was one of my all time favorites... and

I'm not really into westerns.

[WilliamPitt]

37. Wow.

Million Dollar Baby
Unforgiven
Gran Torino
Bird
High Plains Drifter

You are incorrect.

[cyclezealot]

38. Movies are a personal thing.

Personal likes and dislikes reflect our personal values. His dialogue is boring . . We've seen all except for Bird.. westerns and war movies, we rarely bother to attend.. We'll wait for them to make TV..
Only one that makes our grade.. That being Gran Torino..

[WilliamPitt]

40. If you're a Charlie parker fan

see Bird. It's about an iconic night in Parker's career, in a nightclub. Forrest Whitaker plays Parker. Eastwood was a teenager in the audience that night, and wound up making a movie about it.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0094747/

[Adenoid_Hynkel]

7. Freepers are hilariously trying to spin Eastwood's idiocy as intentional

by claiming it was all part of a brilliant homage to Jimmy Stewart's film 'Harvey,' cuz Jimmy was a Republican and loved Amurica and Clint knew that.
Seriously. They really are stretching that hard tonight.

[progressivebydesign]

9. Darn.. the freepers ruined my joke...

Q. Why was Clint Eastwood talking to a chair?

A. Because someone misplaced the giant white rabbit.

[jberryhill]

11. They think "Harvey" was a documentary

[SleeplessinSoCal]

10. Clint probably saw the Obama 2016 "documentary"

[lakercub]

12. Everything about this was bizarre

Whether you liked Eastwood tonight (most lucid people didn't I'd guess) or you hated him...it still did Romney no favors whatsoever. Romney had to own this night completely. He will get a bounce from the convention, as always, but he needed a big one and he isn't going to get it.

Between Ryan getting called out for his incredible lying and Eastwood stealing the show (hijacking?) Romney isn't getting anything like the center stage he needs coming out of this. Ryan and Eastwood are going to be the two hot topics of conversation...not Romney. In fact, Romney is almost a non-entity after all this. Much like McCain in 2008, it is extremely damaging to come out of your own convention with no one talking about you. That's going to kill him in terms of the momentum he needed. What a disaster for him.

[LiberalAndProud]

16. Which side is Mike Murphy on these days? They're writing their own jokes.

Former Romney adviser Mike Murphy tweeted: "Note to file: Actors need a script."

[PMcDee]

17. Clint Praises Jon

Since Clint Eastwood mentioned Jon Voight in his bit of “performance art” tonight, I wondered if anyone remembered when Voight gave thanks for those who would “bring an end to this false prophet Obama”. At the time it reminded me of Henry II saying of Thomas Becket, “will no one rid me of this troublesome priest?” Henry asked this not so rhetorical question within earshot of four very accommodating knights. Becket was assassinated on December 29, 1170.

(I’ve been lurking here for years but this is my first post. I just noticed how many thousands of posts the other people on this thread have; guess I’ve got some catching up to do. Check back tomorrow, there’s a lot of material coming out of this convention.)

[LiberalAndProud]

18. Welcome to DU.

I hadn't noted the Henry II parallel, but I think this Jon Voight quote explains everything.

“The last time I checked, we make our living on crazy” – Jon Voight in National Treasure: Book of Secrets

[NBachers]

19. I like what you said; Welcome to Democratic Underground; and don't be intimidated by big post counts

Nice to see you here, PM McDee!

[Quantess]

24. Interesting historical reference.

Welcome to DU!

[Surya Gayatri]

25. Welcome PMcDee...really like your

historical and literary analogy about Thomas à Becket. Hope to see more of your posts!

I also loved DUer Adenoid_Hynkel's observation:

"an angry old man frustrated with an imaginary version of the president...

Eastwood's speech was the perfect illustration of everything wrong with today's GOP".

[iemitsu]

29. welcome

[rizlaplus]

20. Oh dear! Clint Romney did not make my day!

Dear oh dear! That was one rambling recitation from Mint Eastwood. Looks to me like the GOP will have to go back to the drawing-board for some electable 'great-right-hope'.

[The Last Democrat]

21. Well,

old Clint said if they wasn’t doing their job you had to let them go…..does that mean he’s firing all of Repugs in the House of Representatives. Just wondering.

[rizlaplus]

22. Summary of Eastood's cameo

[Bernardo de La Paz]

26. They invited the man on the left (pic)

[Bluenorthwest]

27. Clint is a rambling old fool, he will say any fucking thing that serves Clint's ego in that moment

this has always been the case. The man is duplicitous and nothing at all like any of the brave and determined people he has played
Here is Clint 'Empty Chair' Eastwood just about one year ago: “Over the years, I realized there was a Republican philosophy that I liked. And then they lost it. The libertarians had more of it. Because what I really believe is, let’s spend a little more time leaving everybody alone.
These people who are making a big deal out of gay marriage? I don’t give a fuck about who wants to get married to anybody else! Why not?! We’re making a big deal out of things we shouldn’t be making a deal out of. They go on and on with all this bullshit about ‘sanctity’ — don’t give me that sanctity crap! Just give everybody the chance to have the life they want.”

And yet last night there he was endorsing bullshit, making a big deal out of backing the very people who he derided a year ago, note his grand 'what I really believe'. Just words, because what this doddering old fuck really believes was on display last night, he's a right winger who supports discrimination, hate of those unlike himself, and money above all things.
Clint: "It's bullshit, and I endorse it. It is not what I really believe, but I promote it with gusto, knowing it is crap, for I'd rather see others suffer huge injustice than see one dime of my own taxed for any reason."
A greedy old has been. A man who endorses what he also calls bullshit, depending on who he thinks might hand him a dollar that day.
A man of zero honor, a liar, a hypocrite, that's Clint Eastwood.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

28. Four more chairs!

[Javaman]

31. Clint was just selling his soul "For a few dollars more"

[rock]

32. If you want to see how effectively to address an empty chair, try

"High Noon" starring Gary Cooper.

[wordpix]

33. "we own this country...politicians are our employees" ---Clint Eastwood

Wow, he got that right