Sunday, September 2, 2012

Why Clint Eastwood And His Empty Chair Was Political Genius

As I'm sure the gentle reader is already aware of, the Republicans made a bold move to have a special guest speaker on the last night of their convention. The guest speaker was Clint Eastwood who did a peculiar routine with an empty chair and a make believe President Barack Obama. Here is an abridged version of his stunt:



If you really want to see the full 12-minute version, click here.

The reactions were mixed, but trended to the negative.

The people that did like it were the socially and emotionally disfunctional ones like Dad29, who also thinks the answer to everything is to buy more ammo.

Another fan of Eastwood's performance is the Las Vegas Badger, who also thinks that actors and actresses shouldn't be allowed to have an opinion. Of course, since he only has this issue when it comes to liberal women, it could be that he is simply a hypocritical misogynist.

Scott Walker thought that the stunt was cringe-worthy. Other Republicans also wasted no time in backpedaling from Eastwood's bizarre routine.

But for all their hair-pulling and teeth-gnashing, the undeniable truth is that they all gave him a standing ovation when he was done. Not exactly what you would call a thumbs down.

The Democrats and liberals, which aren't always the same thing, were having a field day panning the routine.

Zach Wisniewski opined that Eastwood won a bet on how badly he screwed over Mitt Romney, and said, "started out as a train wreck and quickly turned into an unmitigated disaster,and his speech tonight will likely go down in history as one of the worst nominee lead-ins of all time."

I respectfully disagree with Zach and others who think that Eastwood hurt Romney. If anything, I think it helped him. Reince Priebus probably new that it would take a crazy old man yelling at an empty chair to make Romney look normal.

Too bad for them that even this attempt at boosting Romney's normalcy didn't pan out. The whole convention, a week of pomp and circumstance to anoint their chosen one, failed to give him even the slightest of bumps in the polls.

Hell, if it wasn't for Eastwood, Romney probably would have continued to lose ground as he's been doing since he doubled down on dumb by selecting Ryan as a running mate. And no, not that kind of running, mate.

9 comments:

  1. I usta like Clint and enjoyed his movies. I do have a problem with him taking this stage and disrespecting The President of the US with the insinuation that he go f*** himself.

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    1. No, he said that Obama was telling Romney to do that.

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    2. It was Clint's words no matter who he tried to imply was saying them and it was very disrespectful of a sitting President no matter your political beliefs.

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  2. I wonder what Rebecca Kleefisch thought of it. Is that on her slippery slope list. Table, clock, dog, self.

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  3. I think you are right that it was potentially a good move for the Republicans. I have a theory. A typically simple-minded, knee-jerk reaction to all of the negative reactions over Eastwood's ad-lib bit is this: it's Eastwood bashing. (Note Roger Ebert's excellent article which, along with positing why Eastwood's routine went the way it did, shares the fact that Ebert himself was accused of Eastwood bashing as a result of his tweet: http://blogs.suntimes.com/ebert/2012/09/_what_exactly_happened_when.html#more ). Many, including me, love Clint Eastwood. I don't agree with his politics, but I have enjoyed his movies throughout his long career. I respect him, even if I didn't like his bit. See? I can hold two opposing thoughts in my mind and not go insane. Unfortunately, I don't think that ability is very common any more. Without it, the Eastwood bashing sentiment takes root. Then you get something like: "them libs don't even like Clint Eastwood. They ain't 'mericans!" It's not logical, but the current Republicans have long forsaken logic. If the Republicans were surprised by the chair bit and it's length, they will figure out how to make Democrats into the party that hates Clint Eastwood. That, unfortunately, could work.

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  4. You're all nuts. Pundits and partisans are pissed off because Clint's appearance and demeanor shone an unflattering light on YOU. There is no reason, none, why, in a moderately civilized society, SOOOOO many "authorities" have to obsess to the point (and beyond) of INSANITY on one non-politician's words....at a time like this in our global history especially.
    That's all anyone has got? Eastwood Eastwood Eastwood Eastwood Eastwood Eastwood
    If the man had pulled his pants down and defecated on that stage this all would seem irresponsible and absurd.
    So a guy went with a Will Rogers-Mark Twain style of thing, which of course can't be done these days, because you no longer REAALLY poke fun of pundits and Politicians anymore, not to where it makes them uncomfortable.
    This "commentary" and media/blog fappery goes beyond "fiddling while Rome burns".
    There's too much at stake!
    OMG OMG the globe is on the brink of collapse!
    unless....
    an actor talks for 12 minutes, and everyone can go Batshit and ignore all semblance of adult discussion of real issues. Politics is garbage, nothing any old man actor could do would be as balls-to-the-wall crappy as what goes on by "savvy" politicians and their groupies everyday.
    Better keep the focus on Clint, he's a pretty dangerous destructive guy. Making a lot of important decisions, hands on the reigns of Power. Just driving the planet off a cliff ain't he.

    Like I said - you're all nuts.

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    1. Um, okay then. Thanks for your input, although I'm not sure what it was.

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    2. It seems Anonymous 3:24 is just proving Anonymous 2:56's point.

      --sue

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  5. I think Jon Stewart was the one with the best analysis of Eastwood. Read the transcript of what Eastwood said. There is more there than meets the eye.

    President Obama has come out and said he is an Eastwood fan and that he has a thick skin.

    I did not see it as unscripted. There is a definite pattern in every interaction.

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