Clint Eastwood’s Finest Hour
Lucky for Clint Eastwood that he has a sense of humor. He’ll need it, if he tries to wade through some of the zanier criticism inspired by his appearance at the Republican National Convention. From the left, he’s being mocked as rambling, strange, and obsessed with empty chairs. The L.A. Times is wondering “Did Clint Eastwood tarnish his film legacy?” Among folks not otherwise dedicated to supporting Mitt Romney, Eastwood also seems to have aroused a lot of oddly charitable concern, that he distracted attention from the candidate, or detracted from the seriousness of the occasion, or wasted valuable Republican airtime.
So far, I’d say the standout bizarre critique is a New York Times piece by a professor of medical ethics, Jonathan Moreno, on “What the Chair Could Have Told Clint.” Moreno begins by claiming that Eastwood, in interviewing an empty chair as a stand-in for President Obama, was appropriating a psychotherapeutic technique developed by Moreno’s psychiatrist father, about a century ago. Moreno goes on to suggest that Eastwood, instead of lampooning the absent president, should have put himself in the chair, and tried to see things from Obama’s point of view. By not doing that, writes Moreno, “Mr. Eastwood wasted an important educational and therapeutic moment from which our deadlocked political system could benefit; putting himself in the role of the other person of whom he is critical and coming to understand that person’s point of view ‘from inside.’”
We can now entertain ourselves by imagining what Dirty Harry would say to that.
Which brings me to the main point. Clint Eastwood has built a film career in which the most iconic moments — those for which he is most often invoked, and acclaimed — involve a character who takes a beating for doing what he sees as the right thing, from Dirty Harry to Gran Torino‘s Walt Kowalski. When Dirty Harry defies the craven officials of City Hall to chase down a killer — “Do ya feel lucky?” — a lot of us cheer him on because with all his gritty, in-your-face unorthodox ways he appeals to something basic in the human instinct for justice. Likewise, when he points that gun and says “Make my day.”
Clint Eastwood’s appearance Thursday on the national political stage had many of those same elements. There’s no dearth of Hollywood celebrities willing to air their political views, but most of them are securely on the left. Surely aware of the opprobrium and ridicule that would come from a press corps that largely tilts left as well, an 82-year-old Hollywood legend steps up to the podium, and in his own way, with grit and (shock! horror!) humor, tells the country what he thinks is right.
He doesn’t have to do it. He’s a giant of the film industry, replete with a long, successful career. People from both parties have enjoyed his movies for decades. He could have stayed home. But he goes and does it anyway, because he believes there’s something important at stake. And in a country sinking under government spending and debt and ever more smothered in regulatory edicts, he reminds Americans of a basic verity — that it is we, the people, not the politicians, who own this country. “Politicians are employees of ours.” Were that a scene in a Clint Eastwood movie, it would be a good one.
But this wasn’t a movie. Unlike the fictitious Dirty Harry, who can walk off into the sunset as the credits roll, this was the real Clint Eastwood, speaking to the real world, despite the furies that were sure to descend. Make what you like of his improv comedy with the chair — a display of humor which in the no-holds-barred world of politics was actually pretty mild stuff, and something from which even the most traumatized members of the viewing audience will probably recover. In terms of a man standing up for his convictions, putting himself on the line, never mind the critics, this was his finest hour.
Related: I’ll Take Rambling Clint Over a Word-Perfect Desperate Housewife Any Day
Mitt, Marco, Paul and the rest said all the important political things.
Clint delivered the most important ideas. Ideas that have been lost in the shouting and posturing, payoffs and sleaze.
“We Own This Country.”
Those four words must have scared the &^*% out of the socialists trying to fundamentally transform this country because it was true and the roar of the crowd confirmed that we the people know this to be true.
Thank you, Mr. Eastwood.
Clint Eastwood talking to an empty chair was, as Ann Romney put it, “unique.” I can’t wait for Betty White at The Democratic Convention talking to an empty suit. And Betty is a lot sharper than old Clint.
That’s one thing I’m not even slightly concerned about, whether Dirty Harry or Rose Nylund rings more true as having common sense.
The phrase to describe the apprehension you should be feeling is, “not in the face!”
The stupidity of FDR may yet be undone.
Sweet!!!
“The stupidity of FDR may yet be undone.”
But how will your demographic pay for their motorized wheel chairs, oxygen tanks, and diabetes medications, not to mention the mail order Depends Undergarments that come in plain packaging? We wouldn’t want you messing yourself on election eve.
It’s easy to say such stupid things, but in practical terms it won’t be done. Not even Rose Nyland is that much of a scatter brain …
“But how will your demographic pay for their motorized wheel chairs, oxygen tanks, and diabetes medications, not to mention the mail order Depends Undergarments that come in plain packaging? We wouldn’t want you messing yourself on election eve.”
How will yours?
How did you become such a hateful person toward anyone who doesn’t agree with you politically?
You’re always the first to fire away reflexively with the most hateful, bigoted personal attacks on these discussions. What made you that way? Were you always this way? Were you a bully in school too?
Cynical Wonder. Are you still carrying water for the Communist in our White House? Tell me why you are a Democrat? And yes, my demographic is so old that most of us have already forgotten more than you know. I will be buying my wheelchair with my own money and, God willing, I won’t be buying yours for you. ABO2012
When she addresses Obamie the Commie, she WILL be addressing an empty suit.
Clueless wanker flops again.
Like! (Something PJ Media doesn’t offer!) And the best part of his comment was that Clueless Wanker completely missed the whole point of Clint’s performance. As Abe Lincoln said: “Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt!”
Betty White mentioned in the same breath as Clint’s performance: Really? Progressive liberals are legends in their own minds!
No one at the Democratic National Convention has a sense of humor. They’re all as embittered, grim, angry and combative as you are.
Any “Star Trek” fans here? “Cynical Wonder” is a Tellarite, like all his left-wing buddies.
“Tellarites do not argue for a reason, they simply argue.” – Sarek of Vulcan, 2268
Strange, I thought he was like Dear Reader… a Ballchinian.
Talking to an empty suit… what, is she going to spoof President Downgrade too?
If she really does do a gig with an empty suit, it will demonstrate two things: they are playing defensive rather than offensive and they completely lack any imagination of their own and are dependent on other more intelligent and creative people to actually give them ideas.
Well, they do rely on us for the taxes to build It(government). They may as well rely on us for ideas too….
Just lost respect for Betty White, didn’t know she was a Lib.
Betty White is, and always has been, an idiot.
In terms of a man standing up for his convictions, putting himself on the line, never mind the critics, this was his finest hour.
Yes, and for which he will be long remembered, a mix of Mr Smith Goes to Washington and Norman Rockwell without the cloying sentimentality — except it all really happened. The empty chair will be a central part of Clint’s legacy. He deserves and will get the thanks of a grateful nation.
From everywhere, that is, apart from the nests of the left, all those purveyors of ‘yesterday’s wind’. Worth remembering that Eastwood has no great affection for Hollywood — he deliberately set up Malpaso Productions in Carmel, hundreds of miles to the north, to get away from the cesspit. As for leftoid critics, especially the academic ‘intelligent’ ones, recall that the kind of progressive criticism that splits their sides is Jon Stewart calling Sarah Palin a c**t. They also believe that the finest political analysis for the proletariat is to be found at Politico and on MSNBC.
Git’em up and move’m out.
I think that was Bill Maher, not Stewart.
You are correct. It was Maher. I am an admirer of Mr. Stewart. Sure, he hews left most of the time but when he zings em he really zings em.
http://www.cooks.com/rec/view/0,1926,158171-227202,00.html
The other difference between Maher and Stewart is that Stewart is actually clever and very funny.
Mea culpa. Wrong link.
http://www.mediaite.com/tv/jon-stewart-blasts-media-for-wasting-our-time-with-palin-emails/
Quite correct, thanks and apologies.
Yes !
His finest hour indeed. And a masterwork of acting that will remain in the history of how you effectively fight the subversives.
With humor.
The chair would have meant nothing had it not had the proper Obama response to the questions being asked. That is why it was effective, Clint nailed the true Obama and Obama cannot escape the truth of it because Obama is full of hate.
And Obama’s twitter response was also exactly what one would predict- arrogant, empty, and all about himself. The Republicans could not have picked a better one had they sent it themselves.
Precisely, what a metaphor.. a unknown, formless small man dwarfed by a chair he can’t fill.
I do believe the punk made Clints day.
And it doesn’t make much rhetorical sense as a “comeback.” Obama is implying that he was figuratively in the seat after all while a better man humiliated him to the world as he sat there, speechless.
I predict that Clint’s “Sometimes you just have to let them go” line will be one the most memorable and of-repeated lines of the remainder of the campaign.
I also predict the empty chair will be a heavily-used meme for the rest of this campaign as well.
I was going to ask how long until those words and image were made into a bumper sticker- and the answer is “Not Long”.
http://www.zazzle.com/obama_chair_sorry_we_have_to_let_you_go_political_bumper_sticker-128874238834710218
The empty chair will go down in history!
Some professor laments “Mr. Eastwood wasted an important educational and therapeutic moment…”
Oh but it was an educational and therapeutic moment. Therapeutic for me because I laughed out loud and felt much better at the end of the Eastwooding than I did at the beginning. Educational because he simply said all the things that ordinary people have been saying; yet the LSM, the Bien Pensants, the unelected crony’s of Obama – the “progressives” – could not tolerate his message or his opinions.
Eastwood and the liberal horror at Eastwooding showed America how wide the gulf is between the real world and the “progressive” world. A useful lesson indeed.
Clint removed all the taboos on treating Obama like a person instead of a deity. In twelve minutes he stripped Godhood from the President and restored mental health to federal politics in America.
Did RNC “Scripted” Rules Change Start A Civil War In The Republican Party?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pKaXqoC4DjE&feature=plcp
Not a civil war, but a Stalinest coup by the GOP Politboro, starring Speaker Bonehead. Video on You Tube shows fraudulent vote count. Rules committee members were on “lost” buses and a bus denied entry. A sleeper now but it’s building under the radar.
Correction. #7: Your videu link is the bestI.ve seen. What happens when De Mint, Rubio, West, Coburn, Inhofe, etc., see this? If the Dens fall apaet we will hear more about a Third Party.
As I say elsewhere, the exit of the Paulites from the convention means one less bunch of kooks for the Democrat – Media complex to hang around the necks of the GOP.
Clint has a new film coming out in a few weeks. Looks like a sort-of comedy. Be interesting to watch the box office on it, as well as to read the critics’ response. I predict the box office will be good, even if it is schmaltzy, in repayment by Joe Six Pack for this convention performance. I also predict the critics will hate hate hate it. A lot.
Several entertainment industry suicides recently. Evidently lots of money problems out there in LaLaLand right now. Folks are declining to spend money on what the Industry is putting out, both movies and “music” (i.e. hip-hop / rap).
I wonder if the studio heads (and Spielberg, Hanks, Clooney, et al) will have enough capitalist entrepreneurship left in their blue blood to figure out that what Eastwood is selling, people *are* buying.
Evidently lots of money problems out there in LaLaLand right now.
Worth pointing out that one of the things Eastwood is famous for within Hollywood circles is coming in on budget in his movies.
I predict from his statements concerning Clint’s speech, that Roger Ebert won’t find any merit in the new film.
Yeah, that’s the name that was on the tip of my tongue, too. Nice thing about Ebert is that he couldn’t revive his weekly PBS movie review show last year — not enough viewership any more. If people aren’t watching him on TV reviewing movies I wonder how many are reading his reviews in the dinosaur print media.
The effectiveness of Eastwood’s very deliberate mockery will be measured by the amount of invective slung against it, and against him.
So far, it’s looking exceedingly good.
If a Romney or a Ryan had done it, the invective wouldn’t be nearly as shrill. Not even close.
Only someone of Eastwood’s across-the-culture appeal, charisma and stature of character could get this kind of outrage.
This reminds me very much of the Sixties Children, spittle flying, railing against Daddy.
You really are stuck on stupid about Boomers.
“Stuck on stupid”? … Sounds like your toes are getting stepped on. To be fair, I shall explain my point of view.
The “Sixties Children” are merely a subset of the Boomer Generation — a descriptive which is fundamentally about chronology.
There are “Boomers” and there are “Boomers”.
The Tea Parties are full of Boomers who grew up with common sense, with principles.
Then there is the “Woodstock Generation” — sex, booze, drugs and rampant hedonism. The Woodstockians had none of the ideological “purity” of the Sixties Children. The only thing the two groups had/have in common was an adolescent delight in flipping off the Establishment. (uh, … I mean, “Daddy”.)
There is no Woodstock Generation. Me and my Fort Sill Army brat buddies went to Denver Pop earler that summer. We peaked on some very good Orange Sunskine when Hendrix plated the Star Spangled Banner. Pop festivals were fun. You just need to piss on people and it’s ugly. You should expect better of yourself.
I was at Woodstock in 1969 (born in ’47); I enjoyed the music, tolerated the mud and then, fortunately, I grew up. Youth is a stage, not a destination. Unfortunately, arrested development keeps the Left from maturing as they age. Even sadder for us, they vote.
“… then, fortunately, I grew up.”
Many did. Jerry Rubin, for example.
“The effectiveness of Eastwood’s very deliberate mockery will be measured by the amount of invective slung against it, and against him.”
Pilots know that when the flak gets heavy the target’s close by.
I like Clint, mostly his earlier stuff actually. I think he believed he was doing a Kowalski here, but I’m still uncertain as to its effectiveness or advisability. Now, if he’d like to do a FILM on the basis of his political arguments, that might be a lot more powerful. Might make some serious money, too. It is after all what he’s known for, not public speaking, not political satire with furniture props.
Films don’t reach a small fraction of tv’s audience. And television talks about itself more than it talks about movies.
I would love it if Clint appeared on some talk show this week, as composed and articulate as always.
It would make fools out of every pundit who “tsked, tsked” about his being a doddering old man. He would be able to put them in their place without even have to answer a single question about the speech itself.
I respectfully disagree.
I understand that even a genius cannot shoot out a masterwork a day, but he should keep going with the same subtle humor from now until November. By the end of October Obama would not dare appear in public, the whole country would laugh at Mr. Empty Chair.
Go Clint !!!
But it would be subtle. He’d just be talking about his upcoming film.
Y’know, that would be right out of Brietbart’s playbook, wouldn’t it? Throw out some bait that leftists can’t resist going after, let them stake out inflexible positions, let them dig deeper and deeper, then pull the rug out from under them with the next shot.
That is exactly what I was thinking. Let the MSM talking heads go on about crazy old Clint, and then have him appear out of the clear blue as lucid and steely-eyed as always.
It’s the O’Keefe/Breitbart rope-a-dope. They will not know what hit ‘em.
The Obamists are engaged in a real war against senior citizens, as though senior citizens are expendable because they’re too old to vote.
How else to explain Obama’s cutting Medicare by 716 billion dollars to transfer those dedicated funds to Obamacare, while Obama vociferously lies to deny this verified fact?
Mr. Eastwood has exposed the anti-senior-citizen leftists partying under the moonlight.
Let’s all be thankful that Mr Eastwood chaired to be different.
It was incredible. As others have said (Steve Smith #6),
“Clint removed all the taboos on treating Obama like a person instead of a deity. In twelve minutes he stripped Godhood from the President and restored mental health to federal politics in America.”
His portrayal of a bumbling old man (and Eastwood is anything but that) confronting a deity restored sanity to us, much as did the little boy who shouted ‘But the Emperor has no clothes!”.
Eastwood’s refusal to be silenced and his “No, I won’t shut up”; his insistence that America belongs to us, not to the government, and that government is in the service of the people..not the other way around, was superb.
His rejection of the negative campaign and Democratic insults to Romney by that same chair, with his, ‘No, I can’t say that to Romney’ also superb.
Now, people are apparently starting to use the Empty Chair as a campaign slogan and even putting it on their front lawns instead of signs. Heh. Thanks Clint Eastwood for a superb ‘Make My Day’ confrontation.
Thank you for the suggestion !
Empty chair going to the front yard NOW !
I downloaded the video of
clints speech and will watch it over and over again.
I thought he did a marvelous job., otherwise why would all the
left be going bonker over it.
I love Clint’s act more each time I watch it. Fabulous. Stroke of genius! It’ll do Romney/Ryan well.
Agreed. When you realize alot of what he is doing is tongue in cheek, it’s much more effective. I was expecting tough guy Clint or maybe Kowalski Clint but I think what he ultimately did, by taking a humerous approach, was soften the tone while still being able to mock Prez Kardashian. And his “shut up” quips were very funny. It’s like I keep explaining Obama to my friends. “Why does he do those things?” they ask. “Shut up is why” I retort.
And I forgot:
all the stupid attacks from the left against Clint …come from the same idiots who adore Mr. Teleprompter, who cannot speak without help !
And when he speaks without teleprompter he engages into risky spins about the “57 states”, “Austrian”, the Maldives instead of the Malvinas (that he should anyway call Falklands), etc. etc.
This campaign is a show, and the democrats are the clowns.
I watched the convention on C-SPAN Live Stream on my computer so I wouldn’t be propagandized by the MSM gate keepers.
Clint sounded wobbly, forgetful, and babbling.
Ah, but thanks to Al Gore’s internet, the more times I watched him, the better he got. I could hear better what he said. He did not forget a thing, he wasn’t wobbly, he was having fun. He was an actor, a very fine actor. In a movie, you know the bumbling fool would get out on top. In a life event such as the Convention, you don’t. Hence the suspense, the feeling that you might be watching a train wreck, that he would botch and become a laughing stock, bringing Romney with him. When the suspense was over, you could relax and really enjoy him. You could visualize how the Gatekeepers squirm. They couldn’t ignore him because he was Eastwood, they had to open their Gate to talk about him. The thin skinned One has to Tweet and brought more attention to the skit and more ridicules to himself.
Eastwood was brilliant.
The stammering codger made us listen more closely, then, BAM! another zinger. And those millions of fans who ignore politics, and especially the dull Republicans,are going to check it out.
Some of you might not know this but Mr. Eastwood is an actor and director of some note. Why I bet that he could even come up with, plan and execute a…oh what should we call it…I know, a scene.
You know…like the world class director and actor he is.
Rubes…
Clint Eastwood is my great hero – any day! The Left are so evil – not just plain stupid! The way they’re abusing Clint Eastwood here because of his age, including that young “who-is-this-fraud” actress who hinted that Clint is ‘senile’ and should take medication, shows their dark evil side! Who is she anyway – never heard of her! As if older people including someone so distinguished and intelligent, besides being a great actor and Director like Clint, a real American national/global treasure (even in Germany here, they can’t get enough of Clint by repeating his old and new movies over and over again!), are supposed to disappear in care homes! That’s how morally bankrupt the Left is – they want unwanted babies to simply be aborted; they want older people to stop talking and just take medication, but they want porn to be taught at school…what psychopaths; actually, as a matter of truth, most criminals especially serial killers worship Satan by the way. I would suggest that in order to fill up their brains a little bit, the Left can start re-educating themselves by watching one of Clint’s greatest treasure, Pale Rider, which he directed himself. And see the example of how much sacrifice real Americans especially Christians (and later the Jews), through so much blood and tears, WORKED SO HARD to build the modern and free America – but don’t expect the Left to understand such complex history – since they can’t even understand the fundamental points of Clint’s great performance and speech at the RNC!
“So far, I’d say the standout bizarre critique is a New York Times piece by a professor of medical ethics, Jonathan Moreno, on “What the Chair Could Have Told Clint.” Moreno begins by claiming that Eastwood, in interviewing an empty chair as a stand-in for President Obama, was appropriating a psychotherapeutic technique developed by Moreno’s psychiatrist father, about a century ago. Moreno goes on to suggest that Eastwood, instead of lampooning the absent president, should have put himself in the chair, and tried to see things from Obama’s point of view. By not doing that, writes Moreno, “Mr. Eastwood wasted an important educational and therapeutic moment from which our deadlocked political system could benefit; putting himself in the role of the other person of whom he is critical and coming to understand that person’s point of view ‘from inside.’””
Do they even realize that THEY are now the joke??? LMAO!!!!
No sense of humor in these Communists. Time to use that on them until election day. I had my chair out all day. I will do that again every Monday until election day. By then, hopefully, all my neighbors will be asking all the right questions. ABO2012
I didn’t get to see it live, so my first exposure was on the net. I loved it. But of course, I didn’t have to worry about a train wreck. But as someone–maybe Larry O’Connor?–pointed out, the clue to the purposefulness of the entire performance was Clint’s hair. He came out with rumpled hair. He was totally into the persona. It’s a classic. Thank you, Clint!!!!
“Moreno goes on to suggest that Eastwood, instead of lampooning the absent president, should have put himself in the chair, and tried to see things from Obama’s point of view.”
It strikes me as incredibly arrogant for a professor of medical ethics, Jonathan Morenoto to think that he knows better that the speaker what the speaker meant to say or should have done or said. This is the problem of the “all knowing left wing intelectuals” of which I was once a proud part…until I woke up!!!
Exactly Luc, we have these folks with all the letters before and behind their name declaiming they know better what someone else is thinking than the person. The good doctor should check the definition for hubris.
The corruption of Western art has always been a classic example. Supposed experts reading into masterpieces memes and phobias to denigrate the art.
should sit on the chair himself, in a corner, with a dunce-cap on his head, and his foot in his mouth.
…professor of medical ethics, Jonathan Moreno…“Mr. Eastwood wasted an important educational and therapeutic moment from which our deadlocked political system could benefit; putting himself in the role of the other person of whom he is critical and coming to understand that person’s point of view ‘from inside.’”
Scary stuff. Problem is Mr. Moreno, Mr. Eastwood already grasps Obama’s point of view “from inside”.
And what he sees prompted him to fly east and have a conversation with the empty suit in the empty chair.
Holding their Convention in an open air stadium and rain is forecast for the entire week! After all the Progressives prayed for a hurricane to hit Tampa last week, it looks like Karma may bite them in the well you fill in the blank!
http://weather.weatherbug.com/NC/Charlotte-weather/local-forecast/7-day-forecast.html?zcode=z6286
May keep the Dems from crucifying victims in or out of the stadium.
The reaction to Clint’s gig from the looney left proves two things:
1. They have no sense of humor.
2. They are bitter and blinded by a failed and ugly ideology.
well said Claudia. Bravo!
We’ll look back on Clint’s hilarious performance as a watershed moment.
FINALLY, somebody big in the popular culture had the guts to point out that the emperor has no clothes. That he said it without rancor and in such a funny way is just a bonus.
He swayed people.
Furthermore, Mr. Moreno, about a month ago Clint aptly and succinctly observed that “the country needs a boost”.
I suggest you contemplate that simple and obvious observation, that single declarative statement, speaking volumes.
Do it “from inside”. Sit cross legged, empty your mind.
You might even get it
How can you empty a nonexistant bucket?
– get a job. Oh, that’s right — you can’t.
“Moreno goes on to suggest that Eastwood, instead of lampooning the absent president, should have put himself in the chair, and tried to see things from Obama’s point of view.”
Not once in my lifetime has a doctrinaire left-winger–from Obama on down to the peons at Moveon.org–ever tried to see things from someone else’s point of view. Not once.
Our very own “Cynical Wonder” is a great example. To see things from someone else’s point of view requires *empathy*–and the Left has no empathy for anyone but themselves.
“They preach a contempt for the working class unexampled for centuries past, and they do so in the name of socialism”
— George Orwell, “1984″
That response from the Times is absolutely priceless. Get in the chain, Clint. These weenies hate dialog because dialog hurts their feelings. This of course is because they’re wrong. Their positions are based on emotion and cannot stand up to scrutiny. So get in the chair, Clint, and feel our pain.
Employing Alinsky Rule 6 (A good tactic is one your people enjoy) with #Eastwooding.
Just a few weeks ago, the leftist-Democratic Party was raging against a chicken sandwich. Now they are fuming and foaming at the mouth over Clint Eastwood’s satire. Two-thumbs up, Mr. Eastwood!
Ms. Rosett nails it. The guy has been watching the country go to hell under Obama and decided he would use his celebrity to get the apathetic and fence sitters to tune in and open their eyes to the danger Obama represents. What’s really delicious is that he doesn’t give a flying fig about the criticism. What can anyone do to Clint Eastwood?
I’m sure other people have remarked on this, but it just occurred to me: I watched it live, and like so many others, I thought it was on the verge of being a train wreck every minute or two. After watching the clip again, I realized that that was part of the shtick: by making people wonder if he was going to simply stop peaking because he was losing it, nobody could turn away. He had us every second. If that was his intent, and I believe it was, Clint’s a genius.
I imagine he was not too pleased with the way they played him with the Super Bowl ad.
Payback’s a bitch!
So next week at the DNCon, will Obama sit himself in a chair and attempt to see things through the eyes of George W. Bush? That would seem to be a logical extension of what this loonie Dr. is suggesting.
I thought Eastwood was brilliant. I’ve been calling Obama an empty suit for years now. I never once thought of comparing him to an empty chair, especially in front of a crowd of millions of people. Eastwood did more in 12 minutes than what the entire Republican party was unable to do in four years, show Obama for what he is, an empty chair.
Eastwood was also the only one to actually bring up (dare I say it) Afghanistan. We only have roughly 80,000 men and women stationed there, yet if you listened to the convention it was as if they almost did not exist. I’m sure the Democrats will say even less about Afghanistan at their convention, which is truly reprehensible, especially considering the fact that in 2008 Obama called Afghanistan “The right war.” Given how Obama has mismanaged the war in Afghanistan, I don’t know how he has the guts to look one single soldier in the eyes.
Eastwood reminded me of my grandfather up there. He was a tough man with strong opinions who was not afraid to voice them. He also was the type of guy who ran his life according to common sense, and NOT political slogans. I’m sure many of you have grandfathers out there just like mine. Trust me, I think Eastwood’s performance will be long remembered for years to come, when few people will even remember what Romney said at that same convention.
Clint is a craftsman with his acting, his directing, his music. He was channeling the Jimmy Stewart homey style and used the most potent medium to help save our country…mockery of an empty suit. The GOP should help keep the theme alive…like Michael Ramirez did as a cartoonist
What seems to be lost in all your commentary is why are Eastwood’s appearance and comments acceptable to you, but you continue to bash Clooney, Streisand, Longaria, Baldwin, Penn et al who speak out and support their party? Also, you all seem to ignore the timing and placement in the rundown for Clint’s appearance. The bit would have worked fine in the midst of all the other testimonials during the week, but not as the lead in and build up to Romney’s critical speech. It hurt momentum and credibility there. As you all should know, the secret to comedy is timing.
timed perfectly
You’re right, it’s ALL in the timing. Must be why Bill Maher (former standup comic) said that Eastwood “killed” it with his speech.
Also must be why the “stars” who have come out to condemn it are C or D-listers. You would think that at least ONE A-lister would have trashed it, if it was that badly done, don’t you think?
Lefty can dish it out, but he sure can’t take it. Right, Angry person? You did good. Now go back to the Commie campaign headquarters and get your new marching orders. I am sure they have big plans for your time this week. Sheesh. ABO2012
Of course the left is up in arms over Clint’s little skit. In 12 minutes he accomplished what all the other speeches could not. He put a fork in the Obama administration.
Angry guy? We don’t bash all your deep thinking hollywood leftist idols for speaking out, but for never shutting up. All of the fools you mentioned, and many, many more, have been attacking America and patriotic Americans for decades. They have deliberately created a situation in hollywood where no one who disagrees with them will dare speak out for fear of alienating the most powerful, and vocal, people in the industry. For decades the demoncrats have used this built in media advantage to demonize and caricaturize the rest of the nation to the point where Obama “the coolest guy in American High” was elected to a job he has no ability to perform.
Mr. Eastwood has seen this sham for what it is over the years and decided to step up to the plate in one of the most consequential elections of our lifetime in order to try to get Americans to look past Obamas skin color and recognize the fact that he can’t do the job that needs to be done.
As for your outrage at our “hipocracy”, believe me, everyone here on this site prays that you get your wish and that the stage at your partys convention is filled with every shallow blowhard in the hollywood elite. Bring on the clooneys, the damons, the michael moores, the hatefilled jokemeisters like maher, chris rock, dave letterbone, also bring on all the screeching self-righteous hollywood used-to-be-in-the-closet flamers who are so set upon redefining morality for the rest of our nation… PLEASE, DO IT…. MAKE OUR DAY….
Too bad Clint’s honesty and courage don’t infect more of the Hollywood crowd.
Actually, many of Obama”s voters are on a par with most of that crowd.
Clint Eastwood twas brillig with his slithy toves
They did gyre and gimble in the wabe
All mimsy were his borogoves
And his mome raths did outgrabe
Clint Eastwood took his vorpal sword in hand
Long time the Obaxome foe he sought
So rested he by an empty chair
And stood awhile in thought
One, two!
Red, White and Blue!
Clint Eastwood’s vorpal blade went snicker-snack!
He left Obama sliced and diced
And with his head he went galatphing back
Just heard a news bulletin, Valerie Jarrett sits in the empty chair.
Amazing, Clint was supposed to be a mediator and not an advocate when on stage. What a joke.
and as so many have said, the left doesn’t care to negotiate when they are winning, but want to when they are losing. So what one could gather is that the left is losing.
It was brilliant ! Many, many, even here outside the US feel that they have a relation with Clint Eastwood through his movies and to watch this great American icon treat the pompous little Emperor this way was simply hilarious. He “undressed” him with humour, elegance and pure common sense.What a guy !
i thought what the heck is going on with that, then i realized it wasn’t a speech it was a skit. The old man was doing a scene, an actors exercise. we all have the old crazy uncle who talks and no one listens to. sometimes they say things that, in a family gathering, lets the cat out of the bag. You can’t tell him to shut up because it then dignifies his statement, and everyone knows that it isn’t a rumor. the chair is occupied but it’s still empty.
Humorous cartoon titled “Clint Adds a Chair for Joe” at http://drawfortruth.com/2012/09/02/clint-adds-a-chair-for-joe/
I’m going to be a nay-sayer here. (Note: I watched almost the entire convention on C-Span, thereby precluding any interference by the Ministry of Propagand and Lies.) First off, I don’t think Hollywood-types should be shilling for one side or the other. I don’t go to movies anymore because I don’t want Leftists actors making even a penny from my ticket purchases. I assume Leftists would have the same feelings about actors on the Right.
Secondly, I thought Clint Eastwood was rambling (to the point of incoherance). The convention would have been better served by having someone else in that slot.
now, Jack . . .
The empty chair meme has taken on a life of its own. Just in the last hour I have seen it referenced by an economist in China and a in review of movie box office performance for the weekend.
It doesn’t even matter any more whether the pundits thought Clint’s act was weird or dumb. The empty chair image is out there, and it is a VERY negative image, indeed.
I cannot believe this – Yahoo just reported that the Romeny Campaign Video eliminated Clints’ speech! What a most ungrateful and ignorant way to treat such a distingushed and intelligent American/global heritage like Clint Eastwood – after what he did for the Romney’s campaign, incluidng by standing upo to the Left/Obama-loving dominated Hollywood! Some of the Left were persuaded by Clint’s video; and many more in the future is possible – Clint is a very important historical figure in America and globally; not just a mere actor/Director. But it looks like the PR dept for Romney’s is a disgrace to his campaign – probably some infiltrators to hijack Romeny’s campaign! Romney should apologize to Clint – because he will lose many supporters of Clint – both Republicans and Democrats! Besides by such treachery, such Republicans have shown their contempt for free speech and behave in totalitarian way as the Obama’s REGIME! Their talk about freedom is empty and meaningless after all!
Of course the left could not see through the act. They voted for Obama, remember.
Duh!
Loved his speech. He made my day!
Amazing how all it takes for the Left to go from “iconic film legend and revered director” to “senile old babbling fool” is for a guy to leave the ideological reservation.