Posted on 08/31/2012 12:32:00 PM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
...Clint is a brilliant actor, and a superb director of other actors (and I don’t just mean a quarter-century ago: in the last five years, he’s made eight films). He’s also, as Mr Gavin observed, a terrific jazz improvisor at the piano – and, in film and music documentaries, an extremely articulate interviewee. So I wouldn’t assume that the general tenor of his performance wasn’t exactly as he intended. The hair was a clue: no Hollywood icon goes out on stage like that unless he means to.
John Hayward writes:
>>>The intended recipient was not Mitt Romney, the convention delegates, or even Republican voters, but rather wavering independents. Clint was there to tell them it’s OK to find Obama, his ugly campaign operation, and his increasingly shrill band of die-hard defenders ridiculous. It’s OK to laugh at them.<<<
I’m not sure he could have pulled that off if he’d delivered a slick telepromptered pitch. As Mr Hayward suggests, the hard lines packed more of a punch for being delivered in the midst of a Bob Newhart empty-chair shtick from the Dean Martin show circa 1968. They were some of the hardest lines of the convention and may well prove the take-home (“We own this country… Politicians are employees of ours… And when somebody does not do the job, we’ve got to let them go”), but they seemed more effective for appearing to emerge extemporaneously from the general shambles.
The curse of political operatives is that they make everything the same.....Even politicians you’re well disposed to come across as slick bores in that format. Which is by way of saying Clint is too sharp and too crafty not to have known what he was doing......
(Excerpt) Read more at nationalreview.com ...
Clint is an old pro. He is 82 years old, and at times had you wondering if he was going to lose track, and then...zinger. I enjoyed his interview with Mr. Obama.
Must be Hell to be Joe Biden Or Obama today, DAMN,Being Dissed By The Man CLINT EASTWOOD! I would not want to show my face in Public the rest of my Life! Clint You are the Man!
The lines about consulting the Russians over Afghanistan and letting a failure go were devastating. Romney would have caught hell for using that language, but Eastwood pulled it off in that sorrowful and regretful tone. It was a good setup for Romney who gave permission for people to admit that it didn't work and it's time to replace Obama.
I posted this on another thread, but I’ll say it again: the genius of the approach was to spike the guns of the shrill voices on the left screaming about the “anger” and “meanness” of the Republican convention. If he had come out slickly groomed, spouting menacing one-liners in the mode of Dirty Harry or his other tough-guy personae, it would have fed into that narrative. Beautiful, what he did!
82? WOW! I would have thought 72.
He was terrific. I read the transcript and saw him on YouTube. I have friends older than him who do have a characteristic quaver and tremor and who really do forget what they are saying in the middle of a sentence. He has none of that.
Glad to see many of us “got” the Newhart-esque aspect of Eastwood's performance. Sadly, too many of the “stuffed shirt” GOP-e types didn't ...including my own Governor, Bob McDaniel, who disparaged Eastwood's performance.
Eastwood, who is anything but senile, crazy or doddering, knew exactly what he was doing. The “crazy uncle” persona was merely an artifice to veil the thrust of the stiletto. All-in-all, a stellar performance. Kudos, Clint!!
While I'm no Romney fan, Obama is far worse and the Republic needs to be rid of him and his minions. Last night Eastwood did more to help “sell” Mitt to the formerly uncommitted, moderate, “middle of the road,” “average Joe” voter than all of the rest of the carefully choreographed, polished politicians and tearful testimonialists assembled.
The media and GOPe didn’t get the “Newhart” personna. But Newhart did and tweeted some snide remark. He should be grateful anyone remembers who he is.
And by the way Ellen Gegeneres used the same stuttering technique in her “phone call to God” routine.
Clint did not go out there on his own. He was vetted and approved by the campaign.
"Incidentally, I’m not generally in favor of what Rob Long would call “working blue,” but, if you’re going to do it, doing anatomically impossible sex-act cross-talk with an invisible presidential straight-man in front of the Republican Convention is definitely the way to go."
I really hope some of the PACs pick up portions of Clint’s routine and broadcast them repeatedly in the swing states.
they are 25 years too late to try to destroy him...He would say to them.......go ahead, make my day......
Ouch, I have a lot of those moments.....:O)
Well put.
HEY, I liked Bronco Billy! I could have done with a lot less Sandra Locke though (in all of his movies).
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If they're smart, they will.
O.G.: I think the media are being deliberately obtuse ...the GOP-e; not so much.
Terry Mross: “Clint did not go out there on his own. He was vetted and approved by the campaign.”
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O.G.: I would assume that to be the case; however, if so, why did the Romney campaign fail to get the word out to the rank and file??? (McDonnell, etc) ...or is this just an attempt at plausible deniability???
I totally agree with you about Sandra Locke now, but I admit that I thought she was pretty hot at the time.
But that probably wouldn’t have been as effective with the people he wanted to reach. And no one could call it a hate speech and retain any credibility.
That's exactly right. Because it was ridicule without the meanness, the nastiness, the violence, of the Alinsky bunch, it was all the more powerful and enjoyable. There's a lot of gnashing of teeth on the other side over it because they know they were out-maneuvered on this one. Some are even, in desperation, falling back to playing the race card, which is so ridiculous - zero credibility there...
Oh, absolutely! "You've got to let him go" should be used as often as "we built it". It should be on bumper stickers.
Clint was fantastic.
Biden: “ Just a smile with a body behind it.”
I love Clint Eastwood.
He did to Obama what he did to that on screen dog as the character Jose Wales, a prime dollop of tobacco juice delivered right between Obama’s eyes.
Clint’s act reminded me of the old Shelley Berman routines. Only Shelley held a phone to his ear while conversing.
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