Clint Eastwood speaking at the Republican National Convention on Thursday |
When the streamers have all been taken down and the party balloons burst, the memory of Irish AmericanClint Eastwood’s speech will be paramount in most people’s minds after the Republican convention.
Now I know why the parties insist on such tightly scripted remarks from every speaker before they go live on air to millions of Americans.
Clint, alas, looked like a confused old uncle who had wandered into the convention by accident.
Utah senator Orrin Hatch said he thought the teleprompter went on the blink but it looked to me like Clint had no intent to use it anyway.
Pretending to tell the President of the United States to go f*** himself live on air was a new low for American politics no matter who delivered the lines.
It was a sad moment for a great actor and even better director and whoever gave him the green light to speak should be fired.
It was un-American and downright demeaning and showed no respect for the office of the president.
What are we to tell our kids after such an outburst? That we can imply vulgarisms on national television not once but several times because we disagree with a man’s policies?
Read more: Clint Eastwood's empty chair a perfect metaphor for the 2012 GOP
It was beneath the GOP and beneath Eastwood as well, a man with a stellar reputation - and also very sad.
Speaking to an empty chair was bad enough but some of his lines were downright embarrassing such as:
“What do you mean, ‘Shut up?’”
“What do you want me to tell Romney? I can’t tell him to do that to himself. You’re getting as bad as Biden.”
“You thought the war in Afghanistan was OK. I mean, you thought that was something that was worth doing.
"We didn’t check with the Russians to see how they did there for 10 years. But we did it.”
(Er.. George Bush started the war in Afghanistan and the nation was right behind him after 9/11)
Here’s an example of his mental meanderings, to put it nicely:
“I think if you just kind of stepped aside and Mr. Romney can kind of take over. You can still use the plane. Though maybe a smaller one, not that big gas one when you’re going around to colleges and talking about student loans and stuff like that. You’re an ecological man. Why would you want to drive that truck around? OK.”
“I’m not going to shut up. It’s my turn.”
“I never thought it was a good idea for attorneys to be president anyways… I think it’s maybe time for a businessman. How about that? A stellar businessman.” (Romney is a lawyer also as was Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln)
“OK, you wanna make my day? Alright. I’ll start it. You finish it. Go ahead, make my day.”
I think most Democrats would agree he made theirs.
Here's the clip of Clint Eastwood's speech:
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