I can’t resist.
Even though I’ve been a fan of Clint Eastwood forever.
Even though he’s our local hero, and the former mayor of the town where I live.
Even though I was planning to post something else tonight.
Even though I was planning never to write about politics again after the last election
Even though I didn’t even see the speech live. (While you were watching the convention, I was watching “The Imposter” at a theater. I’ll resist the obvious jokes)
After watching convention highlights, my husband suggested I write about it and I said I wouldn’t.
Now he’s asleep and here I am. How could I resist?
It was a convention speech that defied convention–
That left broadcasters speechless.
That made a private man a public spectacle.
That diminished a distinguished career of 5 decades in 10 minutes.
That added #Eastwooding, a new internet meme and a new word to the lexicon.
That instantly illustrated the political power of social media (hasn’t Clint heard of Twitter?)
Go ahead— make my day:
Probably that’s what Mitt Romney was thinking before Clint’s speech.
Probably that’s what Barack Obama was thinking after it.
The question is, what was Clint thinking?
After becoming a writer, artist, TV journalist, mother and breast cancer survivor----I realize nothing turns out the way we expect. So I blog about handling the big and little things — with humor, humanity, and hope.
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Thank you for always concisely and eloquently stating what I am secretly thinking. It makes living in this crazy world a little easier.
Thanks, Linda; the world really has gotten crazy. And I would be included if I really wrote what I was secretly thinking. haha
It was incredibly painful to watch. I’ve never really been an Eastwood fan, but I hate to see someone humiliate themselves before the world–and not have a clue that they’re doing so.
I completely agree; and since I was late in responding to comments (typical of me lately) by the time I’m answering this a day late I’ve started to feel guilty for contributing to the whole sorry mess. I think Roger Ebert got it right in a piece I just read. http://blogs.suntimes.com/ebert/2012/09/_what_exactly_happened_when.html#more
I’m sure Clint is stunned by all of it. I still feel Clint has gotten better with age and I only hope I’m half as sharp as him at 82.
I am still scratching my head. Why did Clint have nothing positive to say about Mitt? It makes me think that he is not so much behind the man himself but behind the promise of tax cuts for the super wealthy. He spent most of the time being disrespectful to the President, but all he did was make a fool of himself.
I guess he felt he was supporting Mitt just by being there. Only he should have written it rather than winging it.
V/
I agree with Jane – Clint didn’t appear to have a clue. He reacted, at the end of his ramble, as if he thought he had aced his talk. For a guy who seems to still have what it takes in the movie business, he seems painfully inept outside his comfort zone. What is hard for me to understand is why this speech wasn’t rehearsed and vetted. Talking to the empty chair seems like a clever idea – a nice device for zingers and loaded with symbolism, and it could have worked – if it had been both practiced and also reviewed by people with some perspective to prune out the stuff that might have sounded good but, when exposed to the light of day, turned out to be potential big mistakes nipped in the bud. The repeated inference that Obama would respond to Clint’s taunts by saying ‘Go f*ck yourself’ was particularly ironic. I am sure that the president is, in fact, now Clint’s biggest fan.
V/
So it’s a little odd for me to respond since you’re in the same house as I write this and obviously we’ve discussed this offline. But for anyone else who didn’t read it yet, here’s an explanation from the NYTimes of how it happened that Clint did not rehearse and how the chair got there in the first place
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/01/us/politics/romney-aides-scratch-their-heads-over-eastwoods-speech.html
I’m feeling guilty enough to resist posting some of the hilarious memes going around about the chair, they’re pretty hilarious.
Ive started saying recently, considering what’s been going on with Republican bloopers the past few weeks,
that Obama has to basically sit back and be still, and just watch them shoot themselves in the proverbial foot. Clint Eastwood just added another, excuse the metaphor, bullet.
I hope you’re right. Unfortunately I think people see these things through their own opinions. What we think are bloopers don’t always look the same or even matter to the other side (how soon we forget George Bush) As much as Clint didn’t have perspective, sometimes I think we don’t either—
i know i’m a little late here- but the frustrating thing is that the whole clint fiasco managed to completely overshadow mitt’s speech – in which he did things like mock the environment and promise to help the little people. AS IF.
It was just sad. I think maybe Ebert got it right.