The idea must have seemed sure-fire when Mitt Romney's advisors
hatched it: Highlight the final night of the Republican National
Convention with a surprise appearance by that long, tall drink of gritty
Americana, Clint Eastwood.The beloved movie star and filmmaker
surely would confer some of his abundant credibility on the Republican
presidential nominee, still trying after six years of running for the White House to persuade some voters of his authenticity.
Eastwood
would then flee into the swampy Florida night and Romney would launch
his acceptance speech. Instead, Eastwood's 12-minute rhetorical ramble —
featuring his conversation with an empty chair that represented
President Obama — became the target of decidedly mixed reviews for the
film icon, inspired a social media pile-on and diverted at least some
attention from Romney's nomination acceptance speech on the crowning
night of his political career.Republican Party regulars
watched gleefully as Eastwood took the stage at the Tampa Bay Times
Forum on Thursday night and slammed Obama for the "national disgrace" of
allowing 23 million Americans to remain unemployed. He told the chair,
"When somebody does not do the job, we got to let them go." He suggested
Vice President Joe Biden amounted to nothing more than "a grin with a
body behind it."
Talk radio star Rush Limbaugh said Friday he
"loved" the shtick, certain that it had gotten "under Obama's skin." A
lot of other conservatives said they felt that way too.If Obama
was sweating, he tried not to let it show. He tweeted out a photo of
himself sitting in a chair marked "The President," with the text: "This
seat's taken." Top Romney campaign strategist Stuart Stevens
insisted that the Eastwood "improv" (the staff thought he would sit in
the chair, not use it as a prop) was not a problem and that Romney
laughed at it as he waited in the wings to make his acceptance speech.But
that did not appear to be the sentiment from at least some of Team
Romney, with advisors the day after the close of the convention shifting
the conversation to anything but their Hollywood pitchman.And, on the network morning television shows, Romney's wife, Ann, sounded less than thrilled with the Eastwood performance.
She
told ABC's "Good Morning America" she was "grateful for his support"
but quickly shifted to much more effusive praise of Olympic athletes and
Mormon church friends who had addressed the convention earlier in the
evening.
She also quickly segued away from Eastwood's bit when
speaking with "CBS This Morning." "You can never take away from the fact
that this country is in trouble" she said, "and people are looking for
real leadership and that I know that Mitt is the man for this moment." A
Romney campaign official, who asked not to be named in order to discuss
internal planning, said Eastwood had gone on for about twice as long as
expected. Although staffers had seen some of the actor's notes before
he took the stage, they didn't have any control over the message.
"You don't edit Clint Eastwood," the official said.A
rising GOP star, Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin, said on MSNBC's
"Morning Joe" that he "cringed" at the Eastwood appearance, which
implied a couple of off-color references by the imaginary Obama. Walker
said he would have preferred to see prime-time appearances by the Romney
family friends who made emotional speeches during the lightly televised
portion of the program before 10 p.m. EDT.
Other fans of Eastwood were not as kind."Clint,
my hero, is coming across as sad and pathetic," tweeted film critic
Roger Ebert. "He didn't need to do this to himself. It's unworthy of
him." Republican political consultant Mike Murphy tweeted that he
was "dying" to read a full account of how the "Clint train wreck
actually happened. Incredible." Murphy on Friday added: "Some senior
Romney genius (amazingly) didn't know a basic showbiz rule dating back
beyond the Ed Sullivan show: Always clear the material." A
representative of Eastwood's production company said he was not granting
any interviews Friday. But his longtime agent, Leonard Hirshan, said
most of the calls he had received were from Republicans who liked the
empty-chair riff.As with any self-respecting 21st-century pop
culture phenomenon, the Eastwood moment quickly developed its own social
media afterlife.One wag created a Twitter handle,
@InvisibleObama, for the unseen chief executive. It had more than 52,000
followers by Friday afternoon. Social networks teemed with photos of
"Eastwooding," people (and even pets) gesturing to empty chairs.
Comedians
considered what the party in power would have to do next week at the
Democratic National Convention to top Eastwooding. "To restore balance
to the universe," said Patton Oswalt, "Obama must have Tommy Chong
onstage at the DNC, talking to a steak." Seth Myers of "Saturday Night
Live" offered another option: "[Vice President Joe] Biden has to go
shirtless for DNC to top it.
