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Subscribe to RSSKENNER, La -- It was a substance-free, 12-minute prime-time performance that remains unlikely to sway a single vote, but Clint Eastwood's cameo appearance and conversation with an empty chair representing President Barack Obama in Thursday night's final hour of the Republican convention coverage remained a prime topic on the campaign trail Friday.
Mark Wilson / Getty Images
Actor Clint Eastwood speaks to an empty chair Thursday during the final day of the Republican National Convention at the Tampa Bay Times Forum.
Mitt Romney's top strategist told reporters on the candidate's campaign plane Friday that the moment should be judged as a performance, and that while not everyone may have liked it, Eastwood's very presence -- and concern for out-of-work Americans in particular -- made the rambling remarks by the 82-year old Academy Award winner worthwhile.
"The fact that he’s there shows he’s speaking his mind and if somebody wants to say I would have liked this different performance or that difference performance, have it," Romney campaign strategist Stuart Stevens told reporters, comparing the remarks to two famous Eastwood films. "Some people didn’t like 'Dirty Harry,' some people didn’t like 'Gran Torino,' that’s OK."
And while Ann Romney and several of Romney's top advisers remained stone-faced during Eastwood's appearance, Stevens said Mitt Romney very much enjoyed it.
"I was backstage with him and he was laughing," Stevens said."[Romney] thought it was funny."
A Romney adviser confirmed the remarks were ad-libbed, and the use of an empty chair as a prop was not discussed by the campaign. If there was any panic during the remarks, the adviser said, it might have come from the control room, where convention planners watched Eastwood continue for more than double his allotted time.
"He did what actors do sometimes, he did a little improv. If someone wants to say this wasn’t Clint Eastwood’s greatest performance, have at it. It doesn’t matter, you know," the adviser said. "It’s I think people saw that Clint Eastwood was not only endorsing Romney but endorsing the need for change. I liked that."
Meanwhile in Virginia, Romney running mate Paul Ryan faced a question by a reporter from NBC’s Hampton Roads affiliate WAVY if Eastwood's remarks were a distraction.
Hollywood legend Clint Eastwood made a surprise appearance at the Republican National Convention, but his rambling speech, which included a make-believe conversation with President Obama, got a mixed reception. NBC's Tamron Hall reports.
"I think Clint Eastwood was just being Clint Eastwood,” Ryan said in the interview to air Saturday. “One of the most profound things Clint said was that 23 million people out of work struggling to find jobs is just unacceptable."
Vice President Joe Biden, who was the butt of several of Eastwood's sharpest jokes, didn't mention the 'Dirty Harry' actor's performance during campaign stops in Ohio Friday.
But, according to pool reports, a supporter did allude to Eastwood's chair act, insisting to Biden during an impromptu stop at an Ohio fairgrounds that "You gotta keep the chair."
Biden didn't directly acknowledge the "chair" comment but gave the woman, Bev Kalmer of Poland, Ohio, a kiss on the lips.
Ann Romney, who spoke in prime time on the first full night of the convention, told CBS that Eastwood is "a unique guy and he did a unique thing" during his RNC appearance.
Asked if she was surprised by the unusual speech, she laughed and said merely "I didn't know it was coming."
Related: Clint Eastwood's 'invisible guest' RNC appearance is a hit online
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Poor, poor, Clint ... blabering, stuttering, no sense, senile ? very sad to see him in that state ... he made as much sense as mitt-the-twit
Any woman in america who votes for romney is beyond comprehension. And if he does get in the white house? well you'll find out how it feels if you get raped (subject to government definition of), then have your romney/ryan/cheney/koch admin mandate that you get raped again by your doctor with a probe. Oh but what luck! At least they cant make you watch...just close your eyes!
What Republicans Say:
Chris Christie - On Aug 28, 2012 Tampa, used the word "Truth" 16 Times in his keynote speech at the RNC convention. And he specifically said this…
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/08/28/transcript-chris-christie-speech-at-republican-national-convention/#ixzz259Pc6lKX
What Republicans Do:
Romney pollster Neil Newhouse stated: "We're not going [to] let our campaign be dictated by fact-checkers." ... on the same day as Christie's speech, during an ABC News/Yahoo! News event at the RNC Convention. ABCNews.com
Then Paul Ryan Spoke:
and Fox News contributor Sally Kohn had this to say about Paul Ryan's convention speech on August 29th, 2012
http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2012/08/30/paul-ryans-speech-in-three-words/#ixzz254a2euWo
Barack Obama:
Alias Barry Soetoro pawns himself as Barack Obama, the humanitarian, the POTUS, the campaign for hope and change. But we know better. Barry is a radical Marxist who was raised by Communist parents and Communist grandparents. His mentors were known Communists, his contacts in college were strictly Marxists supporters, Marxist professors and a group of Pakistani activists as stated in his book, “Dreams From My Father”.
Barack Obama, tell us about Frank Marshall Davis or Bill Ayers. Surely you remember Mr. Davis. After all, your mother knew him all too well. Mr. Ayers, a known terrorist, responsible for at least a dozen bombings, helped your early Illinois campaign by raising money, thru his organization Underground Weather. Tell us about your trip to Pakistan (’81) with Pakistani Wahid Hamid.
Share with us your ideals of socialism, after all you’re a member of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), referred as the “New Party”. Please tell us why you have been influenced by the writings of Karl Marx, the prelude to Communism. Share with us your association with Rev. Jeremiah Wright. Do you justify this man’s message by condemning our country by saying, “God bless America? No, God Damn America”? Was this a forethought supporting your belief in Marxism?
Are these the individuals who have inspired you to public office? Are these the individuals who have inspired you to plot against the United States? Are they the people for whom you’ve entrusted your Muslim faith?
Please tell us why you mocked the Holy Bible and Jesus’ sermon on the mount, calling the sermon a radical message. You have mocked Christianity and this country. Barack Obama, you have betrayed this nation and all its’ people. Your skin is dark because of your race, but your soul is darker because of your deception.
United States of America………………YOU didn’t build it Barack Obama.
Liberals turn conservative truth into lies, while conservatives turn liberal lies into truth.
http://www.snopes.com/politics/obama/birthers/occidental.asp
http://www.snopes.com/politics/obama/muslim.asp
So snopes is the be all end all. For all you know it is being written by a monkey.
I guess you buy into the notion that if it is on the internet it has to be true.
For ALL you know Mitt Romney is a monkey!
Time to Rock with Barack on Sept. 4th! RNC was a funeral procession to the GOP elephant graveyard - John McCain, Ron Paul, and Clint Eastwood.
You rock with Barack right into socialism. I will take my hard earned millions and spend it on a luxurious lifestyle well before you and Barack can get your hands on it. Yes, rocking with Barack is a good thing. Only, it's a good thing when you are incapable of doing for yourself. Thank you for giving us some insight into your self worth.
Topdrum - A graduate of the Glenn Beck conspiracy theorist grade school! LOL
Hey maybe you can get a show on faux noise, and become a multimillionaire freak!
Old and as 'mad as a march hare'....who's great idea was it to put Eastwood up there ????? The guy is 'away with the fairies.
No it was a calculated pretend slip, they have been pandering to the birther's the racist's and all t-potty base!
What does he doesn't understand America, or he doesn't understand American value's, there is no leadership, blah blah blah!
It all means one thing he is not really one of us!
Robme and lyin Ryan your records speak for themselves, and we don't want medicare turned into a voucher system, the Ryan plan speaks volume's also!
Obama/Biden 2012 forward not back!
Hey bill bob! Good to see you here.
Could you test out this link for me and see if it works.
http://Bruce-1628250.newsvine.com/_news/2012/09/01/13601922-romney-cide-is-not-for-us
It's supposed to take you to an article I posted on newsvines with one of my songs.
Thanks!
Eastwood apparently put a lot of panties in a twist.
Must have been effective.
I so wish that Obama's chair was empty in the White House. So much less damage would be done by this charlatan clown. Good job Clint.
Clint eastwood shouldn't talk about trust. He has traded in every wife he's had for a younger model. You made my day Clint by making a mockery of the RNC and overshadowing the kings speech.
Why can't anyone just accept Mr. Eastwood's presentation as one citizen's opinion? I guess it's easier to snipe from behind than to lead a discussion.
AHAHAHAHAHAHA.... I am independent and I could even tell you that Clint's speech was meant to ruffle those feathers... OMG grow up people and get a sense of humor!!!! I loved his speech!!! It had me laughing!!! He is NOT....I repeat...NOT up to be an elected official and was there to "lighten up" the RNC. He did just that!!! A breath of fresh air... anyone who is busting on him cause he is old is just plain rude and disrespectful... Shame on you!! And those that took it for what it was...satire... Wasn't he hilarious!!!! Ad-lib even...how great is that!!!!
I have said it elsewhere ... I will again say it
here: Mitt Romney really does not want
to be president and has not wanted to be president for quite a few years. Further, Mitt Romney has not been a genuine
Republican --- nor has he been striving to prove that he is --- for an even
longer period of time.
I have heard it said of our two political parties
that Republicans are Americans first and Christians second, and that Democrats
are Christians first and Americans second.
Thursday night, by scheduling only Eastwood and himself in the
prime-time slot, Mitt Romney proved to be a Christian (according to the LDS
tradition) first and a Republican LAST.
If you now question this assertion, you will never understand the
answer.
Everyone likes to think that Carl Rove (or others of
his ilk) are the ones in charge of all things Republican at this time in our
lives. This may be true when it comes to
all of the rest, but not when it comes to Romney. NO one has ever been in control of Romney and
no one ever SHALL be. Others may have been in control of everyone else who "performed" at this convention, but the convention (and each scheduled event) was under the control of no one else but Romney. The man did not get
where he is today by delegating control over his destiny to others. He would be highly unlikely to start doing so
NOW.
Everyone likes to think that each anomaly during
this convention was a "mistake" by "someone in
charge." What I am telling you now
is that Mitt Romney was COMPLETELY in charge, and Mitt Romney does not make mistakes.
When you agree with the pundits that this convention
seemed to be only an opportunity for all interested parties to jockey for
position in the 2016 race, you will be starting to "get it." It didn't just SEEM so. It WAS so.
Just as Mitt Romney decided this convention should and would be.
Had he done the very same thing to Bush you libs would all be cheering. Oh yes you would.
He was right about one thing, America does deserve better......
Romney/Ryan 2012
I also love the Obama faithful, RoseAnne Barr, Bill Maher, Olbermann, Oprah the clown, with a gallery of these nitwits, why wouldn't we vote for Obama?
mr eastwood is a class act and his performance prior to gov romney's speech was the most entertaining thing i have ever seen in politics. the real question however is why is crazy joe biden walking around fairgrounds kissing women on the lips? talk about a lech.
The aftermath of the Eastwood fiasco is the most entertaining thing I have seen in politics. More talk about Eastwood and republican bungling and LESS talk about the nominee and HIS story. Priceless.
I've read some of these posts, and just can't get over the people who still maintain this gas-bubble of hero worship in their puny brains. Eastwood really wasn't thought much of in Hollywood, that's why he had to go to Italy to make spaghetti westerns. Now he's become respected partly because of Dirty Harry, but more because of attrition. I still like his movies, also like Arnold's movies too, but how does making good movies equate to political savvy? It is a disease called megalomania that strikes people sometimes when they think they are all that, and sometimes even causes them to commit high treason, as an above average actress from a famous acting family did by going to the enemies capital during the Viet Nam war, at the very same moment some of her countrymen were dying.
We must realize that choosing the next president has nothing to do with looks, smooth talk, or what famous actor you can prop up on stage to make a fool out of himself. It's important stuff, and after 8 years of an administration that has come close to completely ruining this country, it is time for some real thought from some of you people. This isn't entertainment, it's life, and that's what these a-holes are on stage trying to imitate.
If you don't want to vote for President Obama, that's your choice. Just make sure your choice isn't influenced by the prejudices put on you by yes, the media that has existed in this country since radio, tv, and movies have existed.
Looks like Mitt has captured the Alzheimer's vote....
0loser has lost all the rest though.
It's really sad when you realize that the Republican Party ,once the party of the Great President Lincoln has turned into a party of an old senile actor talking to a supposedly invisible President in an empty chair. Wasn't Eastwood, Ronald Reagan's stooge in Hollywood ? The Republicans have turned into a party of fairy tales and lies. With Karl Rove & the Koch brothers calling the shots, and the lies, the chances for a United States has slipped away. We are now in the midst of a Civil war with the Republicans lying their way out of every thing that Bush screwed up. Don't you know that everything wrong with this country is Obama's fault. The BIG LIE that I especially am overwhelmed about is Ryan claiming that Obama closed the Janesville Wisconsin G.M. plant. FACT---BUSH CLOSED IT AND THE GATES WERE LOCKED IN 2008 and Obama didn't assume the Presidency til 2009. Now how could he have closed that G.M. plant that was already closed?? This is typical of the mindset of today's Republicans. Their ads have been factchecked to be lies and they still are advertising the lies--and their people believe them,even when PROVEN FALSE. YOU SURE CAN TELL A REPUBLICAN---BUT YOU CAN'T TELL THEM MUCH, THEY DON'T HAVE THE BRAINS TO COMPREHEND THE TRUTH......
SO NOW THEY PRESENT SENILE OLD ACTORS TO PRESENT THE INVISIBLE PRESIDENT btw how old is Clint Eastwood , maybe 105 ?........SAD :}
OBAMA/BIDEN 2012
Actually you can tell republicans some things. And then they will become Democrats. I was a republican and believed their bs for over 50 years. I am still surprised at the lengths they go to and the absolute lies and misleading info they spew. I don't agree with some of the stuff the Dems stand for. But I do stand for truth and honesty. And it is sad the republicans are counting on party loyalty, lack of the desire to remember anything, and that many think the means justify the end. When republicans start to blatantly lie and trust that many won't even notice or care they are in big trouble. And I will no longer have any part of it.
60s: Clint Eastwood IS the personification of TODAY'S Republican Party. It was entirely appropriate that he was the final speaker. As everyone walked away, including everyone who watched on television across the nation and the world realized the GOP was telling themselves and everyone else: "Here is our final big gun, our final spokesman who will leave with you the image of who we are!" Eastwood's image exactly exemplifies everything the Republican Party has become. Pitiful!
ktlin: My wife of 51 years comes from a long time Republican family. In 2008, she wrote the Republican National Committee three HOT letters and marched down to city hall and changed her voting registration from Republican to Democrat. Her sister, ten years older than she, did the same neither knowing what the other had done. Both said they hot not left the Republican Party but the Party had left them! My wife is a firebrand Democrat today. The rank and file Republican knows EXACTLY what he or she is and what he or she has become---no matter what BS they like to try to hide behind to justify what they are.
Also remember that many of the regulations and regulating bodies that today's TGOP want to dismantle, including the Food & Drug Administration, were first proposed and established by a Republican, Theodore Roosevelt, just a little over a hundred years ago. The decline that results in today's TGOP must have set in very soon thereafter, since Teddy was forced out of the GOP and had to run for president as a third party (Bull Moose Party) candidate, and lost.
clint eastwood had the guts to say the truth.......if either party isn't working...go on to the next.
Eastwood's performance was the highlight of the entire convention. Congratulations to the genius who set it up!
More talk about Eastwood and less talk about Romney. Priceless.
As I watched Eastwood’s performance, I was somewhat uneasy about what seemed like unsureness – both in message and physically. But, he was riveting, honest and unconventional. And, the image of the empty chair is lasting. Clint has to be pleased and chuckling about such attention from the usual suspects. The theatrics were interesting: Was he showing a masterly rendering from one of his elderly roles? Contrapuntal to all the RNC’s perfect youth elocutions? Bob Newhartish? Will Clint surface at a Romney rally? Could this become some sort of a classic? Review the PBS video on YouTube.
As I watched Eastwood's performance, I was very uneasy about the picture being painted of an old white guy reprimanding the first Black President of the United States by physically talking down to him and making the President into an "angry" Black man. A performance worthy of KKK improv theater.
Clint's most prominent message to me was...."This is YOUR country. These politicians answer to you".......or something to that effect.
He didn't care which politicians heard him say it, ....he turned against all the politicians and reached out to speak directly to the American people. I have not seen ANY article mention this portion of the speech where Clint basically gave ALL politicians the finger.
Maybe so. But they prevented the Dems from putting out more faux info out there for all to see. So thank you Clint! Rock On! Do it again and again and again! Apparently some of the repubs liked it too! right! I am sure they are thinking now just how can we spin this? Too funny! Just desserts????