Clint Eastwood's empty chair a perfect metaphor for the 2012 GOP
Posted on Friday, August 31, 2012 at 10:09 AM
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Here was an old, often incoherent and unmistakably contemptuous white guy slowly lecturing an empty chair about all of its shortcomings.
There was something Shakespearean about it, with Eastwood looking like old King Lear on the heath, because the 82 year old's bizarre speech had hard words for Democrats but only faint praise for Republicans.
(This was a trend by the way: at the RNC of 2012 Barack Obama was mentioned twice as often as Mitt Romney).
It began well. Eastwood, who had played an iconic tough guy in the early 1970's, appeared to roars of approval from the mostly white, mostly middle aged, crowd. But once he actually started talking their enthusiasm quickly plummeted.
Eastwood ordered the empty chair to get out of Afghanistan. 'I know you were against the war in Iraq, and that’s okay. But you thought the war in Afghanistan was OK. I think you’ve mentioned something about having a target date for bringing everybody home. You gave that target date, and I think Mr. Romney asked the only sensible question, you know, he says, 'Why are you giving the date out now? Why don’t you just bring them home tomorrow morning?'
That line brought heavy applause but the Romney team winced, they have said their candidate wants to keep the troops there indefinitely. This is when things started seriously going wrong.
If I was a comedy writer for Saturday Night Live I would have seen this moment for it was rapidly becoming: tragicomic comedy gold. You can bet it will be all over The Daily Show, The Colbert Report and SNL by Sunday.
And I predict that empty chair will come back to haunt the GOP in November. Because it did something team Romney didn't want it to: it reminded the nation who was not there.
Blacks, Hispanics, Gays, Immigrants, Women and Young People. There is simply no room and no real welcome for them in the all-male Christian Brotherhood that is the GOP in 2012. There are only the true patriots versus the un-American now.
Oddly enough, looking at that empty chair, I also thought of John Lauber, the teenager at Cranbrook prep school that Romney once led a group of frat boys to attack as he cut his hair off with scissors. For a moment Lauber's ghost was sitting in that chair, being bullied by another malicious swaggering tough guy who was sure that the crowd was on his side.
It began as a joke but it ended by telling the truth, and it was nauseating.
62 comments
Commonsence | Sep 01, 2012, 01:15 PM EDT
Guess maybe I'm I'm too far over the hill to apreciate the comments that are favorable to Clint's absolutely horrible performance. If you can forget what it was that he was saying, he was stumbling, missing his lines on the prompter and generally out of focus. This guy has been one of my favorites for longer than most of the commentors have lived, I for one was embarrassed for him! The empty chair routine might have been funny if not for his terrible timing. I am of the opinion that most of comments here are by people who did not see the convention, only the clips. They didn't observe the looks on the faces of the people in the audience including Anne Romney. If you think for one minute the lines saying "what he could not tell a man to do to himself" are in the lexicon of the Romneys, right wing evangelicals or for that matter anyone with a smathering of culture, you are lost in your world!
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mollysdee | Sep 01, 2012, 12:07 PM EDT
Cahir, you really don't know what you're talking about. Clint was 'right on'. Much of his speech was meant to be funny, but when he said we need a change, he was right. You are clearly a Liberal, with no room in your intellect for 'fair and balanced'. Republicans & Democrats alike are done giving Obama a chance. We need to fix our economy now before it's too late. It's someone else's turn, and many of us are willing to give Mitt Romney, a successful businessman, a chance. Obama, a life-long politician, clearly does not have what it takes.
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JimmyJK | Sep 01, 2012, 11:52 AM EDT
BrianO- Just the facts please
anti-Americans? Are you crazy... seriously... are you? anti-Americans? That was a hilariously wacky statement.
George W. Bush was in power 4 years ago. Presidents Jefferson and Washington were in power 200 hundred years ago... wow
BrianO please use logic. If Obama took over in January 2009 and the economic collapse took place in September 2008 I think it is obvious a mess was created before he took power.
Keep watching Fox and listening to Limbaugh if misinformation and untruths are what you are looking for.
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BrianO | Sep 01, 2012, 11:30 AM EDT
Ah Jimmy its all Bushes fault, why not blame it on Jefferson or Washington. Clint is right its our country, time to step up and tell these anti-Americans enough. Just because they yell louder(chris mathews) doesn't make them right.
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JimmyJK | Sep 01, 2012, 09:45 AM EDT
Please read Matt Taibi's article on mitt romney and bain capital....
Let's get to the facts.....The GOP will reduce taxes on the top earners. They will reduce taxes on all corporations. They will dismantle all government programs including social security, medicare, medicaid.... they will reduce teachers, police, fireman and the like's pay,benefits, etc. They will reduce the before mentioned institutions by eliminating more teachers and officers and letting Americans make do with a lot less.
Fact - taxes on the top earners have dramatically gone down in the last 30 years.
Fact - the middle class has been the class that has taken on the increase tax burden
Fact - the GOP's record on the environment is ignorant and dangerous
Fact - the Obama admin Inherited a deficit, they inherited this from the GOP. GW Bush doubled our DEBT.
Uncertainty - Where Americans want to take our Nation.... Do we need budget cuts and welfare reform? Yes we do... Do we need what the GOP is offering? I did not believe it will make our Nation stronger
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Oldwildrover | Sep 01, 2012, 08:44 AM EDT
I suggest you all go see "2016 Obama's America". It will help you decide who to vote for.
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MegK311 | Sep 01, 2012, 12:15 AM EDT
Cahir I think you are the malicious white guy. Clint Eastwood for his age did a very good job and made some very good points that we would do well to pay attention to. He was also very funny. If he had been there to support Obama I bet you would be spouting a different tune. Cahir, you are just another humorless liberal.
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Cherball | Sep 01, 2012, 12:05 AM EDT
"Go ahead make my day Obamagirl!"
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dansheahan | Aug 31, 2012, 11:49 PM EDT
While I liked Clint Eastwood in all his Movies and I visited his town of Carmel, I absolutely object to Celebrities trying to influence Politics. Life & Politics is not a Film nor Theatre Production. Your next President is so important to the World.
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hollabackgurl | Aug 31, 2012, 09:32 PM EDT
Eastwooding is now a thing. Google it and see.
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Tom Mo | Aug 31, 2012, 08:09 PM EDT
PiperMac 52. What you said is 100percent correcto. But I am still hopin the Irish Central will wise up and give America a break. May not happen in my lifetime though because of all the left wing, coolaid drinking obama worshipers on its staff.
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hollabackgurl | Aug 31, 2012, 08:01 PM EDT
Mitt who? If you think everyone in the convention center was laughing while Eastwood spoke, then you didn't see the look on Ann Romney's face.
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Tom Mo | Aug 31, 2012, 07:59 PM EDT
Cahir O' D. You need to lighten up man. You don't have an ounce of humor in your body or mind. Clint was just breakin' balls. And he did it well. Obama is a friggin' fake. Wise up IC.
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seanomelb | Aug 31, 2012, 07:32 PM EDT
When the PortoRican delegate spoke she was shouted down by the GOP race baiter's the lady left the podium visibly upset.Spot on Briano get rid of the ruling classes,the Koch brothers and their ilk. Poor old Clint I'm sure there's a an old cowboy retirement village in Arizona where he can sit on the porch nursing his winchester and pondering over all those bad guys he may have shot. Reality seems to have morphed into Hollywood for "make my day" The lights should be dimmed to match his dimmed mind.
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