Friday, August 31, 2012

Clint Eastwood - Off his rocker but he still rocks

The reaction to Clint Eastwood's rambling empty chair routine at the GOP Convention seems to have been all over the news networks reflecting our collective sense of humor bypass operation when it comes to politics.



Clint was meant to be neat little warm up act for the Republican party's nominee Mitt Romney; instead he stole the headlines.

Privately some of Romney's aides were said to be furious that Clint had taken the shine off their man's big moment.

Meanwhile Democrats were also jumping on the bandwagon, trying to intimate Clint was the real soul of the Republican party.

Commentator Ted Frier, a former communications director for the Massachusetts Republican Party, wrote in some blog or another. "Clint Eastwood's unscripted sketch in the closing hours of the Republican National Convention in Tampa last night finally managed to say something that was true: The Republican Party is an aging white guy ranting incoherently at an imaginary Barack Obama."

Personally, I was rather glad to see Clint's routine, not because I agreed with its content, but because it was refreshing to see a real unscripted moment after days of men in sharp suits delivering carefully choreographed scripts about how their grandfathers came to America 100 years ago without a shirt on their backs, and worked down the mine and finally got to live the American dream, bought a fridge big enough to bury a body in etc. through honest toil, blah blah (pause to hand out the barf bags).



Clint is probably a better illustration of the American dream. You work until you are 80 plus and somebody shoves you on a stage even though you have lost half of your marbles, for hoped for political gain. This is not wholly accurate. I'm not saying Clint is in the same position as the grey haired old lady with a hunchback who works down my local McDonal's, probably for less than $10 a hour, but hey she gets to see her picture on the employee of the month board every month because she doesn't grunt at the customers.

The Clint Eastwood episode just serves to illustrate how humorless and image conscious the world of politicians and those who feed off them have all become. God forbid that an octogenarian is allowed to mutter and spout off his real thoughts without a makeover by the spin doctors beforehand.

I may not agree with Clint's views but, to my mind he still rocks. He was the man with no name; he made chewing on an old dog end look cool; he was that unremittingly hard dude Dirty Harry, he made a war film from the Japanese perspective and he made Gran Torino. Nuff said.



12 comments:

  1. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  2. Well, they knew he is politically independent or rather that he supports whoever he thinks is beneficial for him, so I wouldn't have trusted him to speak neither for the republicans nor for the democrats. I imagine he didn't even mention Mitt Romney because what can you say about him? God, that man has the charisma of a white tea. At least, they got someone sincere and unforgettable as you said.

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  3. I've just watched Jon Steward's take on the subject and now I'm pretty sure Clint Eastwood didn't even know who Mitt Romney was :-) Oh, well you can't but like him.

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    1. Thanks Starla - I thought that take off was hilarious

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  4. Yeah, it was likely one of the Republican parties best moves as of late: giving Eastwood the spotlight. I'm sure more people tuned into him than Romney.

    xoRobyn

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  5. I have been avoiding all things political so while I heard Clint was 'out there' at the convention, I haven't heard anything he said.

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    1. The Stewart skit is better than watching his whole speech JoJo

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  6. To me, it's disgusting the way Clint Eastwood, an American icon, is being treated. I didn't see anything really terrible at his speech. It was at least original, and had some good lines. If it was a speech against Bush 4 years ago (he even asked to bring back the troops from Afghanistan!), I bet these same people who are now calling him "senile" would be cheering and clapping. What's the problem with liberals, can't they be rational? Can't they take a joke?

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  7. "...finally got to live the American dream, bought a fridge big enough to bury a body in etc." LOL! Fun post, David. This country's politics have grown so bizarre...in the past decade it seems the parties want to polarize America but I think (hope?) there are more folks like me, in the middle, who can sanely consider the nation's future. (Though I realize we're in big trouble if folks like me are actually the voices of reason...) ;-)
    Some Dark Romantic

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    1. Ha ha Mina - you've got to reply on the Europeans to be the voice of reason :)

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On Blog PTSD

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