One would think…
…that Clint Eastwood were the nominee, for all the blather about his gig at the Republican Convention the other night.
Okay, I’ll say it: I’ve never been an Eastwood fan. So sue me.
And I thought his schtick on Thursday night was a bit rambling and hard to follow. He sounded shaky, although parts of it were spot-on funny, and obviously got under Obama’s thinnish skin.
And I doubt that Eastwood—or Romney, for that matter—cares what the press thinks of Eastwood’s performance.
“This seat’s taken” = “I won”
Classy (and narcissistic) as always.
Clint Eastwood’s performance was brilliant. And it was exactly that. A performance of a lucid, cagey actor in full control of his craft.
The persona that he portrayed required the audience to sit closer to the TV to figure out just what the doddering fool was trying to say.
And then he would deftly insert the verbal knife.
When I was a liberal-radical-hippy through the 70s and 80s and even 90s, I would NOT go to see an Eastwood picture. I figured Eastwood=macho=bad. I ONLY saw “The Unforgiven” and wondered how it could be so good. Then, about three years ago, after my conversion away from the Democrats when I saw what was going on in the nomination process and changed my registration to “Indie”, I decided to watch an Eastwood on Netflix. It was not long before I downloaded them ALL and began to call him “my boyfriend.”
He is spectacular! His movies are great! I am glad I became a fan before this week so that I could read every nuance of that precious face. You might be surprized to see how he both uses and mocks “macho” in his films. I love how he openly mocks Sociologists.
For some old ones, try “Two Mules for Sister Sara”, the great “High Plains Drifter” – and what’s the one where he’s a wounded soldier helped by a housefull of women and he seduces every one of them? And for the modern films, “Gran Torino” is excellent as is “Million Dollar Baby” and of course “The Unforgiven.” He is a master. You can skip the obviously more stupid ones, but once you become a fan you can even *tolerate* those for a line or two and a look or three. Oh, his 1997 “Absolute Power” is a must see on the Presidency – one of the greatest first 20 minutes of a film you will ever see AND DO NOT – REPEAT NOT – read ANYTHING about the film before you see it.
GO, Clint!!
Doesn’t matter a whit that the ‘slicks’ in the press–including some cons–didn’t ‘Get Him’. Regular folks “GOT” him real good. Trust me. It’s us’suns with American cojones vs. them of the Regime, Progressivism & Lapdawg Media with VTCs*.
*Vast Testicular Concavities.*
The Left, especially the MSM, always tell you what they fear the most. The more they talk about it, the more people will recollect it or be inspired to find it on YouTube to see the “trainwreck” for themselves. And then for the first time they’ll hear an American icon criticizing the president. If they’re a liberal, they’ll be reminded of Obama’s failed promise to close Gitmo, and his not-so-green habit of jetting around in AirForce One.
Mission accomplished!
It is astonishing that Obama actually responded to getting Eastwooded. Does the man have the emotional stability of pubescent girl? Was there no one around him to ignore it, and act as though he were immersed in lofty thoughts of state that he was unaware of such a trivial jape?
Apparently not.
“to tell him to ignore it”
Sorry.
Some polls are already indicating that Clint’s skit caused some folks to switch from Obama to Romney.
Asking Clint to do that routine is starting to look like another good decision by Romney.
The lack of understanding on the left is highly encouraging. Their upset because of this is also highly encouraging. Getting The Won to respond: Priceless!
I’ve watched the video twice online as well as seeing it on Thursday night live. I’m beginning to suspect that Mr. Eastwood said exactly what he intended to say in the exact way he intended to say it.
And the left has responded as expected linking to it in blogs and sending e-mail links. A quick look at YouTube indicates more than 2 million people have viewed various iterations of the video. Many of those would probably never watch the convention or pay attention to a Republican ad on TV. But some of them will watch the video and think to themselves that the old dude makes some really good points.
And just that may be the beginning of CHANGE for some.
M of Hollywood…The Civil War gothic horror tale you’re trying to remember was,”The Beguiled”(1971). One of several of Clint’s film collaborations with his great mentor & friend, Don Siegel. Arguably his greatest performance.
And just that may be the beginning of CHANGE for some.
Yep. Pretty much all Obama had to go on was “coolness,” but now that he’s being ridiculed (effectively, too), the coolness is gone. The paradox of coolness is that one gets it by appearing not to care, and certainly not to try hard, so when one loses it, how does one regain it? Strenuous efforts to do so only look desperate, and exacerbate the loss of coolness.
And if there’s one thing hipsters are allergic to, it’s being seen to support someone who is not cool, because nerdhood is contagious. They have to deprecate their erstwhile icon, or make excuses for why he once was their icon.
Clint Eastwood’s skit is the gift that keeps on giving. Even when the Pundits are knocking it, and illustrating how bad it was by showing clips, they frequently include the iconic line: “When somebody does not do the job, we got to let him go.” Pure gold!
The performance was puzzling at times, but how anyone could watch its entirety, and not recognize the brilliant skewering of Obama, is even more puzzling.
Of course that is why the MSM and the Democrat Shills hate it so much.
Keep movin’, movin’, movin’
Though they’re disapprovin’
Keep them dogies movin’
Rawhide!
Don’t try to understand ’em
Just rope, throw, and brand ’em
Soon we’ll be living high and wide.
IMO Clint was brilliant. He’s no doddering fool. He did exactly what was needed: he mocked the messiah. He is the first public figure, in or out of politics, to mock and ridicule BHO. There were so many great lines in Clint’s skit that people will remember in the months ahead.
Best of all Obama now has Dirty Harry inside his head calling him a punk; and millions who would otherwise never pay attention to the RNC are thinking about the empty chair.
I have been waiting the entire campaign for something like this. Clint “schooled” Obama, and it wasn’t so harsh as to turn the indy’s off. In his subtle way Clint let people know that they aren’t bad to vote against this failed President. It appears to have payed off with Floridians.
This reminds me of the story a stand-up comic told of learning the trade by attending Woody Allen’s act, over and over. The first night he saw the act, there came a point where Allen got flustered and paused, took off his glasses and cleaned them before resuming. The next night he went back, and son-of-a-gun, at exactly the same point in the act, Allen got flustered…
Clint Eastwood with four Academy Awards, who’s starred and directed fifty some films was stuttering and semi-coherent during his speech at the RNC. Right, and Obama’s going to stop the sea from rising.
If you watch his performance closely, he’s “flustered” when he’s trying to inject a comment in his conversation with the empty seat, err, Obama, but I repeat myself.
“If you watch his performance closely, he’s “flustered” when he’s trying to inject a comment in his conversation with the empty seat, err, Obama, but I repeat myself.”
Exactly. The invisible BHO keeps interrupting Eastwood. I’ve watched it 5 times and find more to laugh at each time.
Clint brilliantly addressed a much broader issue than Obama or even politics. He dared to buck this absurd notion that an American’s skin color or heritage should offer any protection whatsoever from honest examination and criticism.
Bout damn time.
oh and let’s not forget Eastwood’s “Letters from Iwo Jima” – I thought, the best war movie ever made. Anyone who has been brave and lucky enough to have become an Eastwood-Appreciator has to pay attention to the schooling lesson he just gave. That in fact was what is so great about all his movies: they all have deep lessons.
“Bronco Billy” – Eastwood channels Capra
One of the funniest things about this is that my Facebook newsfeed has filled up with “Eastwooding” pictures taken by liberals — photos of themselves shaking their fingers at empty chairs. They seem to think they are scoring points for their side by doing this. For heaven’s sake, don’t anybody tell them that they’re actually reminding everybody, over and over again, of the Obama-as-empty-chair meme. 🙂
There was this opinion piece about Clint Eastwood’s appearance at the Republican convention, see . . . and after the piece there were eighty comments, see . . . I was reading through them, see . . . and I ran across this comment from someone who calls himself “Jolly Roger”:
BEGIN PASTE
Jolly Roger
What I saw last night was a hopelessly out of touch old man alternating between senseless rambling and unbridled rage in a manner that was not just weird but a shocking fall from his previous standing from years ago. It’s so sad what happened to a man of such talent, how he really can’t go on TV anymore. He is no longer insightful but is vituperative and confused. It’s so sad what happened to Chris Matthews.
Oh the Eastwood speech? I loved it.
END PASTE
parker wrote, 1:45 pm
“Clint . . . mocked the messiah. He is the first public figure, in or out of politics, to mock and ridicule BHO.”
Beg to differ, friend . . . don’t you (we) remember Governor Palin skewering Candidate Obama, poking fun at his pretentious speeches, as part of her acceptance speech in 2008? I guess no one had instructed her yet that she wasn’t supposed to do that!
LOL MJR. Funny that.
MJR: so what was the distinction, then, between Palin and Eastwood besides the obvious fact she was running and he was just sharing. I think it was that. He was just sharing, sharing a thought which many have had but few have dared to say for fear they were or would be called racist. He was just sharing: hey, when a man does not do a job well, a man does not do a job well. He was gentle, in fact, in simply saying that in his opinion he is ready for a new President. Palin was perhaps a little strident, running, and a woman. Palin and Eastwood shared a background of calling out frauds, her in Alaska, him in Hollywood. I love in Eastwood films how he calls out wrong doing in people whether they are criminals, cops, professors, or his girlfriends (Misty). He da man.
Mrs Whatsit Says:
September 1st, 2012 at 7:53 pm
Eastwooding. That’s a meme we should happily embrace.
Yes, M of Hollywood, there is a distinction. Palin was running against Obama and we expect politicians to be strident and make accusations against the opposition. Eastwood mocking BHO is very different. He’s a popular culture icon. We constantly hear entertainment airheads spewing vitriol at conservatives, but what Clint did was humorous and crafty. There was not a tinge of bitterness or self-righteousness in his skit.
BTW, I like Palin.
Me, too, Parker. I like her fine and thought that she did a good job as gov.
It’s just interesting how differently this has landed on people because Eastwood is such an icon of a successful he-man. They cannot say he’s stupid for America has loved him for so long. So they say he is old. And, too there is what you say about the Hollywooders who, as Eastwood put it so well, “hotdog” their views. This was “his turn.” He did it so quietly, so gently.
“Eastwooding. That’s a meme we should happily embrace.”
Eastwooding joins swift boating and sealing. 😉
All hail the empty chair!
There’s so much to love about the skit. I can’t see an empty chair now without immediately thinking “Obama!” and laughing.
Someone on another comment thread said this would make it harder for Obama to back out of the debates because … empty chair.
I would add, this makes it harder for the media to do feel good stories about Obama playing golf or basketball because … empty chair.
He can’t talk about the economy because 23 million are unemployed and this reminds people of … empty chair.
Everytime people go to the gas pump or supermarket and face another round of price increases, they fume and think … empty chair.
Let’s hear it for the 80 year olders: Sheriff Joe and Officer Callahan.
http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/08/31/13597578-feds-end-probe-of-americas-toughest-sheriff-joe-arpaio-no-charges?lite
There are some political moments which become their own universe. Reagan’s ‘there you go again,” the campaign ad “weekend passes” featuring the Willie Horton story, “read my lips” among others. Obama now has two that reflect negatively on him: the empty chair and “you didn’t build that.” Romney, meanwhile, has escaped being branded and at the convention humanized his image and broadened his appeal.
M of Hollywood wrote (8:35 pm):
“MJR: so what was the distinction, then, between Palin and Eastwood besides the obvious fact she was running and he was just sharing.”
MJR replies,
I did not see all that much distinction, besides the obvious fact. But susequent posts have drawn other distinctions as well. Post on, friends! . . .
neo’s never been an Eastwood fan, but he goes back a very long ways, to the days and years when she was as out of it in her NY-Boston axis as an unremitting Democrat.
Watch it again, Neo. And again. It is not often that sublety eludes you. This was stagecraft. He was a one-man Pilobolus- different art, same blow-me away with humor effect.
For me the very best of the many Eastwood films are: The Enforcer, Outlaw Josey Wales, Pale Rider, The Unforgiven, Absolute Power, Letters from Iwo Jima, Mystic River, Million Dollar Baby, and Grand Torino. He has directed, produced, and acted in a remarkable number of classic films spanning decades. If you don’t understand the appeal of Clint Eastwood, you do not understand middle Americans clinging to their guns and bibles.
His convention skit will go down as the most gifted and humorous political statements of all time. All hail the empty chair! Four more years for the empty chair!
Lone Watie: That meal was damn good. I’m gonna take up teepee livin’ if it’s like this. You know she thinks I’m some kind of a Cherokee chief.
Josey Wales: I wonder where she ever got that idea.
The Outlaw Josey Wales is to Clint Eastwood what One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest is to Jack Nicholson. If for some strange reason, legislation was passed that we could only communicate in movie lines,then those two movies would suffice.
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0313381/
And this:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0075029/quotes
Enjoy.
“Ten Bears: It’s sad that governments are chiefed by the double tongues. There is iron in your words of death for all Comanche to see, and so there is iron in your words of life. No signed paper can hold the iron. It must come from men.”
It must come from each and everyone. Men, women, and children for themselves; government against all. That is why the founders sought to severely limit DC. They knew that government was a dangerous servant. And so it has proved to be.
It’s just interesting how differently this has landed on people because Eastwood is such an icon of a successful he-man. They cannot say he’s stupid for America has loved him for so long. So they say he is old.
Exactly, M of Hollywood. And in their world view, old = worthless.
The liberals who are scorning Eastwood’s speech as the doddering ramblings of an old man are incapable of recognizing satire. They have no sense of humor. The delicious irony of the empty chair eludes them completely.
What’s in it?
Well, I don’t know exactly.
Then, you drink it.
Perhaps there is no other satire so short but so accurate which wrecks liberal narratives sold in bottles by smoothers referencing prejudice.
Clint did a masterful job. He gave a nice, rambling, doddering performance while quietly dismembering Barky and the Dems mercilessly. There were body parts on the stage when he was done but no one connected the severed limbs to the nice old guy rambling on. It was truly spectacular and the sort of performance that I don’t think any other actor has given – not in my lifetime, at least. This wasn’t an actor just rambling on about his political preferences or making vile jokes about someone; it was a precise performance that quietly cut deep into the flesh of those who would take this nation down with impunity.
How quiet were these deep cuts? Not only did Barack Hussein Sukarno feel the need to tweet a pathetic response that most 10 year olds would consider childish and stupid but everyone has still skipped over one of the deepest cuts of the performance – when the InvisibleIndonesian was telling Clint to tell Romney to f**k himself, Clint replied, matter-of-factly, “You’re crazy. You’re absolutely crazy!” and then launched into the hysterical riff on Biden, the Intellect, and the Dems. Barky is crazy. He is absolutely crazy. This line hasn’t gotten much play, yet … but it will.
Doddering old man?
Hmmmm…. According to IMDB, he’s produced nine movies, and directed five, in just the last five years.
But yeah, he had no idea what he was saying or doing onstage. . . .
The Twit’s Tweet was a perfect expression of that jackass’s personality; his adolescent snarkiness.
BTW, Obama 2016 is well worth seeing, and it scared the c**** out of me. A group of us TEA Partiers, and a couple of Ronulans, went to see it tonight, and repaired to a nearby watering hole afterwards for discussion.
D’Souza does a good job of lifting the lid off the stewing anti-Western hatred of BO. And the interview with BO’s half-brother, George, was fascinating, and what the younger Obama said was completely unexpected. Daniel Pipes makes a good appearance, and D’Souza interviews a bunch of other people, both pro and con. But the last five minutes were what rocked me.
We came out of the theater with renewed determination to get the steering wheel of our nation out of this dangerous enemy’s hands.
quoting Parker who was quoting: “Ten Bears: It’s sad that governments are chiefed by the double tongues. There is iron in your words of death for all Comanche to see, and so there is iron in your words of life. No signed paper can hold the iron. It must come from men.”
And yes, freedom comes from each heart and soul. That is the end all and the be all truth, the truth at the center of conservatism. Conserve the freedom in each heart. Amen.
Curtis @ 12:24 wrote: “If for some strange reason, legislation was passed that we could only communicate in movie lines,then those two movies [One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest, The Outlaw Josey Wales] would suffice.”
and coincidentally, the actor who payed Ten Bears in Josey Wales was also one of the inmates in Cuckoo’s Nest. Go figure!
Obama is now trying to cover his tracks:
BO now a “huge” Eastwood fan
He realizes how petty the tweet made him look. But it’s too late.
Gary Rosen,
For 4 years everyone has written about how great a campaigner Obama is. Sure he looked good against McCain, but look at his competition; a RINO who thought he had the media in his pocket and woke up each campaign morning fearing that someone would call him a racist.
Now that he faces real competition in the Romney/Ryan campaign Obama seems to be “a day late and a dollar short.” As Jim Treacher tweeted, The President went to visit New Orleans followed by Obama. Now his “This seat is taken” followed by an admission to still being an Eastwood fan continues the pattern.\
I think we’re in for an intersting and entertaining 60 days.
LOL, which, of course, let lots of people get inventive.
I particularly like the “second” one.
Rimple. Cowerful. Groob.
http://legalinsurrection.com/
I’m highly photogenic, well, at least my belly, and so I often have to remind women, hey, I’m up here. I’m not just a pretty belly. Please see me. Me.
This problem, my beauty, my attraction, has been so well expressed by President Obama and his eloquent invisibility. I feel no one sees me. Me.
I was so moved and so identified when I heard somone call him the inivisible President. How I identify. I am the invisible white belly of Joe Biden. Beautiful. Complete. And persecuted. Please recognize my pain, my love, my, my, my Obama. Oh please, please do.
M of Hollywood Says:
“ as is “Million Dollar Baby””
yeah, brings up another fun thing about being a conservative. You can like what you like. Million Dollar Baby being an example; the euthanasia theme. Came in for idealogical criticism from some conservatives. But; its not like anyone (of us) cared if someone actually watched and liked it. I saw it and liked it. BFD.
Sam L. Says:
“The lack of understanding on the left is highly encouraging.”
Its the only reason we tread water… Yes; there are more of us but they are better organised and willing to make greater personal sacrifices (re: like taking a low paying job to forward their politics in the public sphere). But time after time; the left shoots themselves in the foot in these ways….
Paul in Boston Says:
“This reminds me of the story a stand-up comic told of learning the trade by attending Woody Allen’s act, over and over. The first night he saw the act, there came a point where Allen got flustered and paused, took off his glasses and cleaned them before resuming. The next night he went back, and son-of-a-gun, at exactly the same point in the act, Allen got flustered…”
Great point…