So tell me, chair...are you feelin' lucky?

During Mitt Romney's speech last night, the Romney campaign sent out a statement tsk-tsking reporters asking questions about Clint Eastwood's bizarre empty chair routine. "Judging an American icon like Clint Eastwood through a typical political lens doesn't work," the statement read. "His ad libbing was a break from all the political speeches, and the crowd enjoyed it."

But later in the night, one Romney campaign aide admitted to the New York Times that Eastwood's routine wasn't what Romneyland had expected:

One Romney aide said that Mr. Eastwood had been booked months ago and that the expectation was that he would deliver a more standard endorsement, as he did earlier this year.  Another aide tried gamely to find an upside, saying that the Eastwood appearance offered a moment of unpredictability in a convention that was otherwise surprise-free.

From the NYTimes:

Clint Eastwood’s rambling and off-color endorsement of Mitt Romney on Thursday seemed to startle and unsettle even the candidate’s own top aides, several of whom made a point of distancing themselves from the decision to put him onstage without a polished script.

“Not me,” said an exasperated-looking senior adviser, when asked who was responsible for Mr. Eastwood’s speech. In late-night interviews, aides variously called the speech “strange” and “weird.” One described it as “theater of the absurd.”

Finger-pointing quickly ensued, suggesting real displeasure and even confusion over the handling of Mr. Eastwood’s performance, which was kept secret until the last minute and offered an off-key message on the night that Mr. Romney accepted the Republican presidential nomination.

A senior Republican involved in convention planning said that Mr. Eastwood’s appearance was cleared by at least two of Mr. Romney’s top advisers, Russ Schriefer and Stuart Stevens. This person said that there had been no rehearsal, to the surprise of the rest of the campaign team.

But another adviser said that several top aides had reviewed talking points given to Mr. Eastwood, which the campaign had discussed with the actor as recently as a few hours before his appearance. Mr. Eastwood, however, delivered those points in a theatrical, and at times crass, way that caught Romney aides off guard, this person said. Mr. Eastwood even ignored warnings that he had exceeded his time.

Mr. Stevens, in an interview, said he would not discuss internal decision making but described Mr. Eastwood’s remarks as improvised.

“He spoke from the heart with a classic improv sketch which everyone at the convention loved,” Mr. Stevens said.

He called it “an honor that a great American icon would come and talk about the failure of the current president and the promise of the future one.”

Mr. Eastwood delivered one of the more unusual moments in Republican convention history — a speech in which he pretended to have a sarcasm-filled conversation with President Obama sitting by his side in an empty chair. Initially, there were no plans for Mr. Eastwood to take a chair onstage as a prop. But at the last minute, the actor asked the production staff backstage if he could use one, but did not explain why. “The prop person probably thought he was going to sit in it,” a senior aide said.

“Mr. President, how do you handle promises that you made when you were running for election?” the onetime Dirty Harry said, mumbling to a befuddled crowd of thousands in the convention hall and millions of television viewers.

As thousands of “OMG!” tweets started flying, Mr. Eastwood, 82, asked the invisible Mr. Obama why he had not closed the prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.

“What do you mean, shut up?” he said, continuing to talk to his imaginary companion. A moment later, he stopped again, saying, “What do you want me to tell Mr. Romney?”

“I can’t tell him that. He can’t do that to himself,” Mr. Eastwood said. “You’re getting as bad as Biden.”

Leonard Hirshan, Mr. Eastwood’s manager, said the actor was traveling and would not be available for interviews until he started promotional work shortly for his next film, “Trouble With the Curve,” which is set for release by Warner Brothers on Sept. 21.

Mr. Hirshan said he had heard a chorus of response since the speech, divided evenly between those supportive and critical. “The more I look at it, the more I appreciate what he did,” said Mr. Hirshan, who added that neither he nor others in Mr. Eastwood’s professional entourage, as far as he knew, were consulted in advance.

“He does these things for himself,” said Mr. Hirshan, who spoke by telephone on Friday morning. “It’s his private life. He believes in what he’s doing.”

 

The networks began their hour of convention coverage at 10 p.m. Eastern time, which meant  that Mr. Eastwood was the first act of the night for their viewers. He was scheduled to speak for about five minutes but stayed onstage much longer, throwing off the schedule for Mr. Romney, a stickler against tardiness.

As Mr. Eastwood ran long, convention producers activated a red light on the camera stand opposite the stage, a signal to nudge speakers to wrap up their remarks.

Despite the fuss that the speech created, the campaign insisted that Mr. Romney enjoyed it.

“I was backstage with him and he was laughing,” Mr. Stevens said.

Aides said Mr. Eastwood does not like teleprompters and was trusted to deliver an on-message endorsement.

“He made a last-minute decision to ad-lib, and I don’t think people knew,” said Ari Fleischer, a former adviser to George W. Bush, who said he had spoken with people involved in planning the convention. He suggested that second-guessing of the Romney campaign’s convention presentation was “just the nature of the beast.”

Two aides said that Mr. Eastwood had been booked weeks ago and that the expectation was that he would deliver a more standard endorsement, as he did earlier this year in Sun Valley, Idaho.

After that endorsement, Mr. Romney himself asked Mr. Eastwood to come to the convention, one of these people said.

Advisers were quick to point out that Mr. Eastwood mentioned all the points they had agreed upon, including an unemployment figure, but the aides had expected him to address the issues in a more straightforward manner.

Comments

[Hedge Fund Hal (edited by Esmerelda H.)]

what a pompous, constipated pile of poobah from the New York Times, with their antiquatedly formal "Mr." Stevens and " Mr." Hirshan. Take an enema, "old gray lady". The Eastwood appearance was the best thing to ever happen at a Repub convention, and it throws Mr. Cool and Biden totally off their game for next week. Romney doesn't look like a square anymore.

[Preston]

eastwood looked like he was ready for the big dirt nap

[sparky]

Well Hal, that's because you and Mr. Eastwood have something in common..you both talk to people who aren't there.

[BlackRhino]

Aww Preston, don’t be so hard on the guy. I kinda like em, and he did, in a roundabout way, tell Rmoney to go "fuck himself".

[KS]

My contribution - from the irreverent and witty Mark Steyn;

Play Clinty For Me
By Mark Steyn
August 31, 2012 3:08 P.M. Comments14
Like William F. Gavin, I hugely enjoyed Clint Eastwood’s turn last night, but I’m not sure I agree that it was “unintentionally hilarious” and that “he forgot his lines, lost his way.” 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 directed eight films). He’s also, as Mr. Gavin observed, a terrific jazz improviser 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. Indeed, 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. A guy smoothly reading platitudinous codswallop while rotating his head from the left-hand teleprompter to the right-hand teleprompter like clockwork as if he’s at Centre Court watching the world’s slowest Wimbledon rally is a very reductive idea of “professionalism.” 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.

Oh, and next time ’round, he should sing.

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.

[Preston]

I just think he is in the same fashion as Raygun and his "I don't recall" cappy nods. Studs Terkel nor Gore Vidal were never this disoriented.

[BlackRhino]

Yep, I hear ya. Damn funny to see the wingers tie themselves in knots in a damage control effort.

[Hedge Fund Hal (edited by Esmerelda H.)]

No, it's even funnier to see the leftwing nutbars try to pretend like there was any actual damage. The guy brought down the roof. Damage is polite embarrassed laughter by a few as you tell your jokes, and a chorus of boos as you walk off the stage. He left the stage to a tumultuous ovation reserved for heroes. His shtick worked. Who cares if Ann and some Romney aides looked uncomfortable about it? Once they take the sticks out of their backsides they'll feel much better. Her husband was backstage laughing his ass off. Clint never actually said any bad words. His whole point was to portray the reality of how meanspirited, nasty and ugly Obama and his campaign team really are. And as the other fellow wrote, it's ok to laugh at them, and disrespect them.

[Hedge Fund Hal (edited by Esmerelda H.)]

"{Obama's} increasingly shrill band of diehard defenders {are}ridiculous...." ....KS, does this sound like some people we know?......ahahahahaha

[Preston]

Hey Tommy/Hal, your imaginary characters will have whiplash next week keeping up with facts.

[Hedge Fund Hal (edited by Esmerelda H.)]

I won't be watching. Are you serious? They played a clip of a submissive Jessica Yellin giving puffball questions to The One as a previes of the CNN Obama Interview. I was able to click the remote before he got too far into his prissy, sanctimoniously boring speech about helping Sasha and Malia with their homework and dinner with Michelle. Thank God for the remote.

[KS]

Damage control this;

From William Bigelow;

"Bring it on, Dems and you Obama-shills in the media.

You want to criticize Clint Eastwood's performance at the RNC? Go for it. Here's why we can't wait for you to mock this American icon:
No real American likes it when people make fun of someone who represents the image of American toughness. The only people who mock macho Americans are effete leftists who are uncomfortable with a strong America, and that won't play with most Americans, who are proud of being strong and independent.

The more you pick on Eastwood, the more it becomes apparent that you're desperate to find something, anything to avoid acknowledging that Romney and Ryan were simply terrific and you're scared to death.

As you embarrass and reveal your true selves mocking an American Icon -- as you waste all that energy -- it's not energy being fired at Romney the day after his convention. Talk about falling into a trap of your own making.

This is the most important reason: down deep, most Americans know a dirty little secret you try so hard to hide: All of the Dems running the government are the spiritual descendants of the radicals of the 1960's. Barack Obama is a disciple of Bill Ayers and Saul Alinsky.

And one of the hallmarks of the 60's radicals (I know, I was there) was to mock the generations that came before them. That meant everyone older than the young, unrepentant, nasty, unpatriotic radicals who hated America.

When you mock Eastwood, you confirm for all of us that you truly are the spiritual descendants of those 60's radicals. It's beautiful, you are simply pulling the masks off and revealing who you really are.

And the faces underneath are ugly".

[KS]

Pardon Mr. Bigelow for speaking dog whistle. heheheh

[ExPattBrit]

Neither Romney or Ryan mentioned Afghanistan or Gitmo during their convention speeches. But Clint at least brought it up, good on him for that! Although why he thinks the GOP is going to do anything about it, good-luck with that.

Clint looked somewhat "Baked " to me, entirely possible since he's a bit of a libertarian.

Probably Romney nailed down the old white "get off of my lawn" guy demographic after Clint's impromptu performance.

[Cueburner]

An early barometer of the success of a political convention to influence the electorate are television ratings. Nielsen placed the final two nights of the GOP convention down some 30 percent from the last two nights of the 2008 GOP convention.

[Gentlemen Rouge]

But hey, on the brighter side, KS and Tommy are on board.

[T-S]

There's sure a lot of redundancy in that article. Needs a good editor.

I actually thought there were times when good ol' Clint sounded pro-Obama. Like he was annoyed that Obama didn't carry through with his promises. I'm sure Clint really, really wants Obama to do what he says. Right? So, Clint must be a closet liberal.

[Finis Hominis]

“Well, I've just heard from someone very high up in the GOP that they heard me say this. They listened to me and they listened to you. They dropped the Mormon talk and they went right to the flood area.

They know my listeners are very important to this election.”

The Savage Weiner

As important Thomas and his friends at Freedomtorch are, I didn’t hear about Rmoney visiting the affected area. Did this happen?

[Hedge Fund Hal]

Michelle Obama claimed in her emotionally manipulative big speech before the RNC that Barack drove her around in an old junker that had a rusted out floor with holes in it, offering a view of the pavement. Obama met Michelle when they both worked in a law fim in Chicago, and started dating her at that time. What were they paying him? In Trident gum, like on the silly TV commercial? Also, Rush revealed that Michelles' father, a well-connected Democratic Mayor Daley political machine operative, made 55k a year as a pump operator for the city water department, in the seventies. That's equivalent to 250k a year in 2012.

[nameless]

You know, his taxes are released so you can see some history of his relative worth. He did say he just paid off his student loans just prior to becomming president.

[T-S]

You believe Rush? How do you know he wasn't talking 2012 dollars? He lies anyway. And Obama may have been an intern in the office. Do you know for sure?

Do you know anything for sure?

[T-S]

And you live on the Riviera . . .

[Hedge Fund Hal]

no ...the reason i know he wasn't talkign 2012 dollars is because he said-" that would be about 250 thousand dollars in today's dollars... haha ...neither Michelle or Barack grew up in poor circumstances...do Ivy League law school grad lawyers usually get hired on as interns?...please....

[Hedge Fund Hal]

Tommy008 lives in Spain, the mountains of Spain,..... i live in a luxury residence at the top of a premier Seattle hotel right next to the Piek Place Market.....now you've been set straight....hahaT-S hahaT-S .....getting ready for President Romney?.......

[Gentlemen Rouge]

Thomas, if you are the representation of preparation to a president I disagree, then no. No one can prepare to be in your condition.

[T-S]

Do you understand interning? Volunteering to get experience. You know, like doctors do in residencies? To hone their skills. To network.

I'd say you don't know much about how professions work.

BTW, I'm not really a democrat but I gotta say these democrats sure have put those rethuglicans to shame. This is the guy who said he'd put those walking shoes on and then didn't. But he's sure got his eye on the prize right now and he's going to get it.

And I'll be happy. Anyone but a Rethuglican.

[T-S]

You know, Hal. I realize one thing watching this convention. In America, for most of us, it's who you are and what you know that gets you elected. And not the color of your skin.

That's for most of us. I'm so glad I'm not a hater.

And who would have thought the man could touch so many emotions - twice. I'm awestruck.

[Hedge Fund Hal]

yeah i understand interning, Johnson ,anyone wiht a room temperature IQ understands what that is, and that you don't get paid, but i also understand the pecking order in hiring. Ivy League law grads don't work as interns, Johnson? "he's going to get it........haha dude can't even crack 50 % on a Democrud biased poll after the RNC convention and Clint.......tiny crowds, anemic numbers.....now fo rthe first time Romney has a higher favorability rating then Obama....haha hahaha haah T-S......talk is cheap ...first Tuesday in November will blow away all your big talk and bluster.......Thugocrats will lose.....

[Hedge Fund Hal]

T'S did yo uknow that your Captain Compassion's half-brother in Kenya had to call America and speak to a bare acquaintance,Republican conservative writer and filmmaker Dinesh D'Souza to ask for a thousand dollars to pay for his child's hear treatment? He had no way to contact his brother Barack, and what's more knew it would be a waste of his breath to ask for his financial help.. Dinesh, being actually compassionate in real life, and not a faker, wired him the money after speaking to the Doctor.

[Hedge Fund Hal]

"heart treatment"....sorry ...Esmerelda has the night off tonight......

[T-S]

Knock off the name calling, Hal. If you can't think of anything intelligent, don't post.

[T-S]

I just realized you generally resort to name calling when you feel defeated. Poor baby.

Biden did it. Michelle did it. Clinton did it. And boy oh boy, did Obama do it.

Poor Hal.

[Democrat]

Surprisingly, so did Kerry…

[Hedge Fund Hal]

haah T-S ahah T-s false confidence, false bluster......first Tuesday T-S....i don't think it's really going to be all that close...haha......KS?..... care to take over?....I'm bored, as I feel like the election is already pretty much decided....we DID build that!........man what a verbal blunder that was......hahahahahaa

[Hedge Fund Hal]

yes , Democrat, good point. This second Obama campaign reminds me very much of the Kerry campaign, wih their false confidence, condescension, and underestimation of their opponent, who they view as a bumpkin, with a kind of sneering contempt.

[T-S]

Does anyone else think Hal doth protest too much?

Kerry? So you think they're going to swiftboat Obama? If they do, I bet the dems are ready for it. We'll see. I also think the public is a little smarter now.

Remember who they picked over Kerry?

[Finis Hominis]

I think Thomas has lost his ever lovin’ mind. He’s doin’ Joker style posts and third person references to himself which reminds me of a person out of touch. Kind’a like talkin’ to a chair.

[T-S]

You were right, Democrat. Politico's wrap up just celebrated Kerry's speech. I missed it. I'll have to watch online.

Poor Hal. Poor poor Hal.

[KS]

Bill Clinton did a superb job last night, like a good country lawyer defending this guilty President (an economic terrorist) last night. A number of his opinions about Mr. Obama were cleverly dishonest and Fact-Checker disputed a number of them...

[T-S]

KS, you move from one fact checker to another until you find one that agrees with your beliefs. And usually they are checkers with no credit whatsoever. Just arms of the right-wing idiot-ology. No one takes you seriously anymore.

[KS]

You are a majority of one, T-S. So tell me are you also 1/32 Indian like Elizabeth "you didn't build that" Warren?

If you believed all that Bill Clinton said as you imply, you are just as gullible as I suspected. I wished Clinton would have spoken more credibly as he did earlier when he said that "Mitt Romney had a sterling business record".

[KS]

Here they are; Source - http://apnews.myway.com/article/20120907/DA14MN4G0.html

OBAMA: "I'll use the money we're no longer spending on war to pay down our debt and put more people back to work - rebuilding roads and bridges, schools and runways. After two wars that have cost us thousands of lives and over a trillion dollars, it's time to do some nation-building right here at home."

(AP) Vice President Joe Biden speaks to delegates at the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte,...
Full Image
THE FACTS: The idea of taking war savings to pay for other programs is budgetary sleight of hand, given that the wars were paid for with increased debt. Obama can essentially "pay down our debt," as he said, by borrowing less now that war is ending. But he still must borrow to do the "extra nation-building" he envisions.
He made a similar statement in his State of the Union address, and it is no less misleading now than in January. And the savings appear to be based at least in part on inflated war spending estimates for future years.
---
OBAMA: "We will reform and strengthen Medicare for the long haul, but we'll do it by reducing the cost of health care, not by asking seniors to pay thousands of dollars more."

THE FACTS: Some of the proposals the Obama administration has floated in budget negotiations with Congress would ask Medicare beneficiaries to pay more. Among them: revamping co-payments and deductibles in ways that could raise costs for retirees and increasing premiums for certain beneficiaries.
Obama even indicated a willingness to consider raising the eligibility age, currently 65, to 67. As word of some of the proposals leaked out, the president faced a backlash from fellow Democrats. He has since said he would not accept Medicare cuts as a part of a deficit reduction deal, unless it also includes higher taxes on the wealthy. Still, some level of increased costs for middle-class and upper-income Medicare recipients is likely to be part of any future deficit reduction deal.
---
OBAMA: "We can help big factories and small businesses double their exports, and if we choose this path, we can create a million new manufacturing jobs in the next four years."

THE FACTS: Obama has claimed an increase of some 500,000 manufacturing jobs over the past 29 months. But this is cherry picking by the president. From the beginning of Obama's term 3 1/2 years ago, manufacturing jobs have declined by more than 500,000, according to the Labor Department's Bureau of Labor Statistics. Manufacturing jobs have been on a steady decline for nearly two decades.
Even though there has been a modest uptick in manufacturing jobs this year, unless there is a major turnaround, it seems unlikely that Obama's goal of 1 million new manufacturing jobs can be reached by his target date of 2016.

[nameless]

KS,
There is no registered Domain with the name "apnews.myway.com". Sometimes web admins mask their server whereabouts for nefarious reasons. But i uncovered the IP, 74.113.233.77, and it hooks to "Mindspark Interactive Network". A gaming site. So either someone is hiding their propaganda or they are making a fool out of the unaware.

[T-S]

Which just proves if you look hard enough, you'll find someone who will tell you what you want to hear.

[KS]

KS,
There is no registered Domain with the name "apnews.myway.com". Sometimes web admins mask their server whereabouts for nefarious reasons. But i uncovered the IP, 74.113.233.77, and it hooks to "Mindspark Interactive Network". A gaming site. So either someone is hiding their propaganda or they are making a fool out of the unaware.

Posted by: nameless | September 07, 2012 at 06:59 AM

Try calling up the root URL only. I did and just found the website, but you'll have to locate the specific article.

T-S - There is ample evidence of that in the leftwing blogosphere.

Owebama's acceptance speech fell short - no surprise there. Too bad.

[nameless]

You are missing the point KS.

"calling up" is not the problem. Discovering who owns or runs the server is the problem. like i said before, when an administrator masks a server and there is no way to discover it's ownership, there is a reason for concern. unless you are ok with accepting anything you come across on the web. i checked both domains.

apnews.myway.com
news.myway.com
Checking server [whois.crsnic.net]
Results:

CRSNIC has no information for that domain.

[Hedge Fund Hal]

"Obama's acceptance speech fell short" - KS......sad, but true.........so sad, too bad T-S.....all of the lib media are glum and depressed this mornng.......Charlie Rose said Obama is exposed as obsessively competitive and "arrogant" , with a delusional estimation of his own abilities, in a new book about him.....hahaT-S....

[KS]

This is the URL for the Fact check that I posted.

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20120907/ DA14Q42O0.html

[Finis Hominis]

I don't think he gets it.

[Coiler]

I don't want to open it, It could be a virus.