JIM TREACHER: If Talking To Empty Chairs Is Bad, Obama Needs To Start Holding Rallies In Broom Closets. Hey, when you’ve been reduced to passing out free tickets in bars. . . .

Related: Justin Katz: The Brilliance of Clint’s Empty Chair. “Viewers who found the speech peculiar (mainly those in academia, entertainment, and media, I’d wager) may have done so because Eastwood used a theatrical device in the service of the wrong script… from their point of view and according to their expectations. As a thought experiment, they should imagine some other actor’s using the exact same gimmick at the Democrat National Convention, with a non-present Mitt Romney.”

Also related: The Sad and Tawdry Line-up for the Democrat Convention in Charlotte. Hey, Hillary had urgent business in the Cook Islands that week!