September 7, 2012

"[W]ith just an hour before he appeared on stage, it still hadn’t occurred to Eastwood to use an empty chair as a stand-in for the president."

Clint Eastwood reveals. He'd flown in just that morning, reassured the campaign that "everything I would say would be nice about Mitt Romney," took a nap in the hotel, and then began thinking about what his remarks would be. He came up with 3 points: “That not everybody in Hollywood is on the left, that Obama has broken a lot of the promises he made when he took office, and that the people should feel free to get rid of any politician who’s not doing a good job." But he didn't figure out exactly how he'd say it. He got to the convention site "just 15 or 20 minutes before I was scheduled to go on," went through security, said hi to Archbishop Dolan (who sought him out), and was taken to the backstage area to wait for the cue.
“There was a stool there, and some fella kept asking me if I wanted to sit down,” Eastwood said. “When I saw the stool sitting there, it gave me the idea. I’ll just put the stool out there and I’ll talk to Mr. Obama and ask him why he didn’t keep all of the promises he made to everybody.”

He asked a stagehand to take it out to the lectern while he was being announced.
“The guy said, ‘You mean you want it at the podium?’ and I said, ‘No, just put it right there next to it.’”...

Originally, he was told he could speak for six or seven minutes, and right before he went on, he was asked to keep it to five, but he said, “When people are applauding so much, it takes you 10 minutes to say five minutes’ worth.”

Also, there were no signals or cues of any kind, so “when you’re out there, it’s kind of hard to tell how much time is going by.”

He also said he was aware he hesitated and stumbled a bit, but said “that’s what happens when you don’t have a written-out speech.”
He went back to the hotel, ate some room-service dinner, and went to bed — apparently without checking the TV or the internet and not knowing we were all talking about him. He's seen it now, and he says the media folk who disparaged him "are obviously on the left."

Beautiful! I'm glad he waited a week to say that. And that he said it to The Carmel Pine Cone. 

99 comments:

Expat(ish) said...

Wow, I would have bet actual cash money that he cut that short to take advantage of the "make my day" shout.

I really enjoyed it, not just because of my political leaning, I just appreciate when someone takes a big chance like that, live.

-XC

kentuckyliz said...

*bowing down to his awesomeness*

David said...

What a riot. Obama had a TelePrompTer to say that he loved his wife. I also utterly love that Clint did not check himself out on tv. That's manly.

chickelit said...

Makes me want to watch Gran Torino again.

Larry J said...

That's why he's Clint Freaking Eastwood and we're not.

Shouting Thomas said...

Love the fact that the reporter from teeny-tiny Carmel interviewed the great international film star.

Wish we had a top notch international music star in Woodstock who was conservative and willing to out himself.

That's about the only way a non-lefty loon could win the job of Town Supervisor.

The Drill SGT said...

Obama's weakesr demo as angry white men. Who better to get lunch bucket votes. I'd like to see a set of internet ads using Clint

Farmer said...

No, no, no. According to the Althouse comments section Clint meant to make those mistakes. It was all part of a fiendishly clever plan. Somebody tell him. He's got it all wrong.

caseym54 said...

It's not like he cares what they say about him. He knows who he is, if anyone does.

gerry said...

According to the Althouse comments section Clint meant to make those mistakes.

Thick, thick, thick. Heh.

The Crack Emcee said...

I've been telling everyone he's the only person I saw who made any sense this election (because he didn't say "nice things about Mitt Romney" beyond "I think that Mr. Romney and Mr. Ryan are two guys that can come along") but told us not to trust politicians and "we own this place."

That's MY message and I'm sticking to it,...

furious_a said...

RNC: "Make My Day".
DNC: "Pay My Way".

jungatheart said...

http://www.youtube
.com/watch?v=ZEClGMJ2r3g

Paul said...

"President Obama is the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people,” Eastwood told The Pine Cone this week. “Romney and Ryan would do a much better job running the country, and that’s what everybody needs to know."

From Clint Eastwood's interview with the Carmel Pine Cone.

Amartel said...

Fly in.
Nap.
Organize thoughts.
Go to hall.
Greet fans.
Wing it.
Go back to hotel.
Have dinner.
Bed.

Just another day ... of being totally awesome. Imagine all the planning and preparation and blood, sweat and tears that goes into making Obama seem cool. This guy just rolls out of bed and embodies the concept.

Hagar said...

He did not say anything about "mistakes," Farmer; he just said he made lemonade out of not having a prepared script.

Matt Sablan said...

Ok, I was an early doubter about the power of the speech. I admit it.

I've been proven wrong.

Alex said...

Go Clint! I'll see his new film at my luxury cinema where I can sip on Merlot.

Anonymous said...

"Even into his 80s, Eastwood ... is still making two movies a year... and is about to direct a remake of “A Star is Born” — To locals who know him, the idea that he is uninformed or senile is laughable."

Democrat's propaganda machine, the MSM, are going to have another palpitation. Their propagandists' "impartiality" showed, didn't it?

campy said...

He did not say anything about "mistakes," Farmer

Don't feed the troll.

Badger Pundit said...

Who calls a newspaper a "Pine Cone"? Wonderful! Possibly papers in the west are more creative -- the Boulder "Daily Camera" comes to mind. Much more interesting than the vanilla "Posts," "Times," "Journal," "Tribune," etc.

alan markus said...

So, is there anything "sticky" that came out of the DNC convention? Any catch phrases/slogans? Anything that will still be talked about a week from now?

Only thing that I've seen that comes close is Jennifer Granholm doing that Dwight Schrute/Mussloni imitation.

granmary said...

I knew Eastwood had a winner as soon as the MSM started foaming at the mouth with outrage.From now on when Obama's name is mentioned everyone will see an empty chair. Just as when Clinton gave his finger-wagging endorsement everyone in the country remembered the finger-wagging "I did not have sex with that woman, Miss Lewinsky, not one time" Case closed Eastwood was a winner.

Matt Sablan said...

Alan: Well, Obama did say a small business did build their business. And that you did (build) that about a lot of things.

So... well, yeah.

Also, Romney would fire reindeers.

edutcher said...

And long after people have forgotten Joe's, Choom's, Ms Fluck's, Moochelle's, Fauxcahontas', and, yes, Willie's speeches, people will still be talking about Mr Yates.

garage mahal said...

Obama +7 Gallup post convention bounce, back up to dead bin Laden level.

Need more empty chairs, that worked great!

Anonymous said...

I didn't think that his speech was so spontaneous. I was a little fixated on his hair.

Farmer said...

Hagar said...
He did not say anything about "mistakes," Farmer; he just said he made lemonade out of not having a prepared script.


He said he stumbled. Come on.

campy said...
Don't feed the troll.


Hey.

granmary said...

I knew Eastwood had a winner as soon as the MSM started foaming at the mouth with outrage.From now on when Obama's name is mentioned everyone will see an empty chair. Just as when Clinton gave his finger-wagging endorsement everyone in the country remembered the finger-wagging "I did not have sex with that woman, Miss Lewinsky, not one time" Case closed Eastwood was a winner.

Anonymous said...

An awesome, unscripted, totally genuine moment at the convention. Way to go, Clint.

Anonymous said...

I didn't watch all that much of the DNC. Did anything remotely offbeat happen that might compare with the incomparable Mr. Eastwood?

There were all those regular folks -- at least from the Democratic point of view, including an Eagle Scout raised by two lesbians -- who came up on stage for a turn, but that's about it.

I've got to hand it to the RNC for taking a chance on Eastwood.

The DNC did have better music, though.

Matt Sablan said...

By +7, you mean 52/43. Is this registered voters, likely voters or adults? What's the breakdown? Is it using a realistic D+1-3% at most partisan split, or is it using the ridiculous 2008 turnout model?

Matt Sablan said...

A lot of the insults on Romney were pretty uncivil. I liked how everyone kept telling us Romney doesn't see employees as people, despite the fact he closed his business to find a missing girl.

Way to be on the ball with the facts DNC.

Anonymous said...

Gosh I wonder how much more clever he could have been if he had even more time to consider the skit....

test said...

From RCP:

General Election: Romney vs. Obama

Gallup

Obama 48, Romney 45

Obama +3

Garage is so dishonest he can't even cherry pick facts accurately.

jungatheart said...

The main thing that detracted from Clinton's speech was that he talked haltingly at times. Like he was searching for the next word. He wasn't 'on.'

Matt Sablan said...

He's talking about solely the Gallup poll (which does show that Obama is at 52/43, which is about +7, but that's not normally how people refer to favorable ratings when they stand alone like that, it can be done, but it is kind of clumsy, as I thought he initially meant 57/XX.)

Colonel Angus said...

By +7, you mean 52/43. Is this registered voters, likely voters or adults?

Doesn't matter. If enough of the electorate thinks another four years of this failure running the country then I suppose we get what we deserve.

So far all I've heard is give me another four years to try and figure it out. If that's what resonates, oh well.

test said...

Matthew Sablan said...
He's talking about solely the Gallup poll


What I posted is the gallup only poll dated today, and includes a link to the Gallup website showing the poll tracking.


http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/latest_polls/elections/

Matt Sablan said...

See, the key to understanding Garage is to figure out what he's talking about. He's talking about the job approval number, not the head-to-head. He's technically telling you the truth, but it's not what you would think he means when he says it.

chickelit said...

Lindsey Meadows said...
Gosh I wonder how much more clever he could have been if he had even more time to consider the skit....

Why even your comments could use some polish at times. Mine too.

David said...

Garage's stats are the approval rating. The spread on electoral preference moved only one point. We will see which one actually means something. Not likely they are both right.

It wasn't a liie Garage. Not precisely. But as usual your stats were misleading and incomplete.

chickelit said...

garage mahal said...
Obama +7 Gallup post convention bounce, back up to dead bin Laden level.

Speaking of bin Laden bounce, that #1 Best seller on Amazon bounce is going to bite POTUS before the election is out.

Colonel Angus said...

See, the key to understanding Garage...

From what I have seen its 95% sarcasm and 5% bi-polar. I'm confess I don't understand how you root for Obama to win then go and vote for the Green Party candidate.

garage mahal said...

Garage is so dishonest he can't even cherry pick facts accurately.

Gallup, Einstein. Gallup.

garage mahal said...

See, the key to understanding Garage is to figure out what he's talking about.

Gallup. +7. Back up to bin Laden approval. That was really that hard to understand?

test said...

Matthew Sablan said...
See, the key to understanding Garage is to figure out what he's talking about.


All there is to understand about garage is that he's a useless and hateful waste of carbon. His method of expressing his hate in any given second doesn't change that.

Roger J. said...

This gallup factoid definitely calls out for a "hitler finds out...." vid.

Nomadic100 said...

Well, I was convinced that Eastwood had intentionally built in all those hesitations, but, notwithstanding the "Pine Cone" story, I'm still not sure he didn't. The man has phenomenal state presence. A smooth delivery would have been less compelling.

Nomadic100 said...

I meant "stage presence."

Nomadic100 said...

I meant "stage presence."

frank said...

Ahhh Lindsey--admit it--you're dreaming of getting a rock hard Eastwooding from an 82 year old manly man. Stock tip--buy P&G options--the sale of Tide is going though the roof due to all the wet panties caused by Clint and Paul the next 60 days.

Joe said...

Gosh I wonder how much more clever he could have been if he had even more time to consider the skit....

It probably would have been terrible. Having it unpolished lent it the air of authenticity that Eastwood was striving for.

edutcher said...

garage mahal said...

See, the key to understanding Garage is to figure out what he's talking about.

Gallup. +7. Back up to bin Laden approval. That was really that hard to understand?


You must be joking.

Here's a link to Gallup.

As you'll see in the sidebar, Choom's approval is up 3 (adults), and he's up 1 in the head-to-head with the Romster (registered voters).

As the head-to-head is a 7-day average, it's gonna take a while for the convention to have an effect, but so will the jobs report.

Better to look at what's on Ras.

I'm Full of Soup said...

I am begining to agree Romney will get that cascade preference landslide victory that Insty has been suggesting. Obama will be down by 5% by mid-October.

carrie said...

Did any of the mainstream media ever try to interview Clint about his speech?

carrie said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Matt Sablan said...

Again, Garage is speaking specifically about this poll, the daily job approval one, not the one that most people are looking at during the election (head to head).

Michelle Dulak Thomson said...

Man, I miss the Carmel Pine Cone. (My husband and I used to play the Carmel Bach Festival summers; Fridays the first thing we'd do was hunt down the paper.) A classic police log, among other things.

Michelle Dulak Thomson said...

I still don't see what garage mahal means, Matthew. The job approval poll says 52% approve/43% disapprove of Obama. There isn't a corresponding Romney job-approval rating, because he isn't in office. The "who would you vote for" poll has Obama ahead of Romney by three points. So where is garage's 7% from?

Dust Bunny Queen said...

"Gosh I wonder how much more clever he could have been if he had even more time to consider the skit...."

Why even your comments could use some polish at times. Mine too.

I wonder how many of you posting here have ever made a speech or performed in front of hundreds of people? Thousands of people? Merely 50 or less people?

How many of you have ever given a completely' scripted' speech? How about an extemporaneous, spur of the moment speech? Or in the case of Eastwood a speech based on a few talking points and just winged it?

I have. All of the above. In my profession I would give seminars and classes monthly and often twice monthly. The talking point and winging speech is the style I prefer.

I was asked to be a speaker at various functions for which I would prepare the talking points and wing it, adding humor and playing to the audience and fielding questions at the end. Often I would be called upon to suddenly talk about a topic for which I had not made preparation.

None of that is easy.

Obama is good at the completely scripted speech and he really really sucks when off teleprompter, which shows that he doesn't have a very nimble mind or a quick wit.

That Clint Eastwood did as well as he did with a talking point speech, not scripted, made us laugh, got his point across.... and made such a big impact is extremely impressive.

Matt Sablan said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Matt Sablan said...

I had to give an off the cuff speech once in class, during plenty of times in Model UN, YIG and Mock Trial.

It's freaking hard.

Matt Sablan said...

Holy unclear pronouns Batman. Clarified post:

Garage is saying that Obama's rating is at a +7% compared (if you were to take Obama's 52% compared to the 40~% that don't approve, and fiddle with the MOE some.)

Farmer said...

Nomadic100 said...
Well, I was convinced that Eastwood had intentionally built in all those hesitations, but, notwithstanding the "Pine Cone" story, I'm still not sure he didn't. The man has phenomenal state presence. A smooth delivery would have been less compelling.


Priceless.

garage mahal said...

So where is garage's 7% from?

The recent three day rolling average is up +7 from the previous three day 45% approval from 9/1-3.

PianoLessons said...

We totally loved the Clint Eastwood schtck - it was so Bob Newhart (who we adore)....

And that he gave this great interview about his creative process to the Carmel Pine Cone - his local press - is just precious.

Hollywood awesome. And I have never put those two words together until now (clue - I never got the Hollywood love for Ronald Reagan back in the day but I was young back then....too into Doonesbury's "In Search of Reagan's Brain" and all that...)

But Clint - I not only get you - and so did my folks in the room - but I loved every bit of your moments on the GOP stage.

chickelit said...

AJ Lynch said...
I am begining to agree Romney will get that cascade preference landslide victory that Insty has been suggesting. Obama will be down by 5% by mid-October.

I'd love to see that too, AJ but don't get cocky...cocks are mocked around these parts.

ndspinelli said...

Clint Eastwood is the new Althouse obsession ala Judge Prosser. Geez!!

Matt Sablan said...

Maybe Eastwood should have made his speech more "deliberately subdued" like Obama did.

Known Unknown said...

"Back up to bin Laden approval."

Bin Laden's approval levels have to be flatlining.

Mary Martha said...

He is a genius.

This story was in the NPR national news this afternoon along with the line. They said something along the lines of 'He only had three points he wanted to make including that president Obama has broken a lot of promises.'

His interview with a tiny local paper got NPR to state that on a national newscast. Excellent!

edutcher said...

One other thing to keep in mind about Gallup, Axelrod sicced Eric Holder and the DOJ on them.

A little visit from Solly an' da boys has been known to rearrange perspectives.

Cedarford said...

Obama and bin Laden.
Sort of makes you wonder why Nixon had to resign when he was the Godlike leader that OK'd the risky moon mission....and succeeded where JFK and LBJ failed!!!

To be fair about NIxon, though his order to launch was as big a no-brainer as Obama green lighting whacking Binnie once the CIA team the Bushies put together found him...he didn't dither for months.

Eastwood is right, the chair is empty.
He is also right that the media and pundits only have the power we give them through our believing they are credible or believe others think they are credible. By confessing he didn't even bother to tune into what thousands of hysterics said after his speech and felt that only a convenient local reporter was worth the bother to talk to, Eastwood made the media and pundits ...SMALLER.

wyo sis said...

If it wasn't pure awesomeness (I think it was) Clint Eastwoods monologue was the result of serendipity . The right person, the right message, the right time and place.

The Godfather said...

The really beautiful thing is that this story shows Clint's low regard for politicians even better than his speech did.

Here's this guy who's asked to address the convention of one of the two great parties of the United States, and so he flies across the country and goes to the venue -- and THEN, only THEN, does he start to figure out what he's going to say. He is not impressed by the occasion. He doesn't even bother to look at his rushes.

And if Romney is elected (God willing!), and he screws up, you can count on Clint to tell us so.

yashu said...

One other thing to keep in mind about Gallup, Axelrod sicced Eric Holder and the DOJ on them.

Yes, Gallup is being sued by the federal government.

Just like Gibson Guitar was.

I'm sure it's just a coincidence.

Richard Dolan said...

The Eastwood comedy act is still what people are talking about and interested in. It's the only part of the two conventions that will have any significant resonance.

Good for him.

Anonymous said...

chickelit said...
"...cocks are mocked around these parts."


just itsy bitsy ones chicke...just itsy bitsy ones


B said...

chickelit said..."...cocks are mocked around these parts."

As are, and more appropriately so, town pumps.

Methadras said...

Like a boss.

_Jim said...

alan markus said:

"So, is there anything "sticky" that came out of the DNC convention? Any catch phrases/slogans? Anything that will still be talked about a week from now?

Only thing that I've seen that comes close is Jennifer Granholm doing that Dwight Schrute/Mussloni imitation."

That would be it, that "gem from Michigan" Jennifer Granholm ...

Really, it is a "must see":

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EKux363Dg64

_Jim

Michelle Dulak Thomson said...

garage mahal,


The recent three day rolling average is up +7 from the previous three day 45% approval from 9/1-3.


So it is. Of course, if you scroll over the graph, you will find a number of three-day rolling averages. One per day, as it happens. The one right before the 52% is 47%.

Ctmom4 said...

@Jim - Really, what was that all about? Was she off her meds? The lily white Harvard educated Canadian former governor of Michigan, droppin' her g's and talking like a Black preacher. Why don't Blacks get offended when Dems do stuff like that?

edutcher said...

The two things that will be remembered from the Democrat convention?

They booed God.

"We all belong to government".

lge said...

I had read a lot of comments about Clint Eastwood's speech, and got splashed by a lot of crocodile tears from Democrats who said Eastwood had embarrassed himself. Then I watched the speech myself, and found out what a triumph it really was. The Democrats were lying for political purposes -- surprise!

Eastwood made the plain-spoken statement, "We own this country. It's not you owning it, and not politicians owning it. Politicians are employees of ours." That's different from Obama's view, which is that he and his cronies, a semi-hereditary ruling class, own us.

"When somebody does not do the job, we've got to let them go. . . . We don't have to be mental masochists and vote for somebody just because they seem to be nice guys." That is, we don't have to subscribe to the absurd, insane Obama-worshiping cult of personality.

They say the proof of the pudding is in the eating, and actually listening to Eastwood's speech demonstrated that once again.


Revenant said...

One of the things I like about Eastwood is that he seems completely disinterested in proving himself to anyone, at this point. That's unusual in an actor of any age. They tend to have a driving need to be liked by everyone.

George Clooney, of all people, seems to share that trait with Eastwood.

BarryD said...

I got my wife started on Spaghetti Westerns, which she had never seen. She now thinks, as I long have, that Clint Eastwood is about the greatest actor, ever. And director.

What's interesting is that films like The Outlaw Josey Wales were not all that big a deal when they were released, but since then they've become must-see classics, frequently quoted by anyone with any awareness of post-18th-Century culture.

JAL said...

Yeah. Doncha love the name of his hometown newspaper. :-)

And yes. We will pull out Gran Torino and appreciate a master.

Ooops. It's somewhere in the depths of one of the storage pods in our driveway the result of a basement flood (popped a pipe) 4 weeks ago. Sigh.

Later.

yashu said...

I'm not sure if anyone's mentioned this, but IIRC Gran Torino played a significant role in Althouse & Meade's first date (I don't remember if it led to the date or they watched it on their date).

May Eastwood be as auspicious an omen for the election, too.

pm317 said...

“President Obama is the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people,” Eastwood told The Pine Cone this week.

Why isn't this line in the interview/article getting any attention here? Hillary Clinton's supporters like me and millions of others saw he was a hoax in 2008.

Anonymous said...

Garage,

Gallup, Einstein. Since when did 45/48 = +7?

traditionalguy said...

Clint is a master communicator using visuals and using short anglo saxon power words, as few as necessary.

He is the genius version of a Scots Irish common man. So Clint is not one you want to fight with in a media war of words.

Ralph L said...

Then I watched the speech myself, and found out what a triumph it really was. The Democrats were lying for political purposes -- surprise!
I had the same reaction. Nothing bizarre about it. It wasn't the Dems, it was the media...never mind.

Of course, their reaction made more people notice it. I hope Clint was clever enough to plan it that way. Romney sure lucked out. I wonder who on his staff panicked that evening.


jeff said...

I enjoy the fact that those who think Eastwood embarrassed himself with the way he delivered his speech have nothing to say about Obama when he gives a speech without a teleprompter and wanders and uh uh uh scattered just as much thru his speech. Interesting. Even better is the way the left portrays him as senile, despite the fact that he is socially liberal on things such as gay marriage and abortion, and would be a natural ally on those issues should their be a Romney administration. I guess the important thing is dissent shall not be tolerated.

FleetUSA said...

I've watched the CE empty chair routine once but listened to it 2 more times. It is much better to listen to because the video is a mishmash and distracting. CE nails it with the dialogue - a true professional.

_Jim said...

jeff said:

"I enjoy the fact that those who think Eastwood embarrassed himself with the way he delivered his speech have nothing to say about Obama when he gives a speech without a teleprompter and wanders and uh uh uh scattered just as much thru his speech. ..."


The acronym "SCOAMF" comes to mind.

It has even made into the urban dictionary:

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=SCoaMF

_Jim

tacotaco said...

Beautiful! Ann Althouse is nuts!

The routine was terrible, sad, and awkward, and all the pretending on this blog won't make it otherwise.

_Jim said...


tacotaco said:

"Beautiful! Ann Althouse is nuts!

The routine was terrible, sad, and awkward, and all the pretending on this blog won't make it otherwise."

On a par with what the SCoaMF does when off-teleprompter? ("uh uh uh ... you didn't build that ... uh uh uh")

(I don't really expect a reply let alone something cogent from a 'drive-by' but let's see what he/she/it comes up with ... )

_Jim