William A. Jacobson
Legal Insurrection
8/31/2012
Looks like Clint Eastwood got under Obama’s skin.
Obama sent this tweet today in response to Eastwood mocking Obama last night by using an empty chair as a prop (via The Rhetorican):
click on the image to enlarge
While I was very uncertain whether the Eastwood appearance worked, I now believe it did.
If it didn’t, Obama would not have felt the need to respond.
It must have been a late night in AxelPlouffe HQ figuring out what to do, and whether Eastwood making a mockery of Obama’s empty suit chair before tens of millions of people was something which could not be left to just the media to counter.
This is not the tweet of a confident man.
Related: Clint Eastwood Killed, And The Media’s Not Going To Be Able To Present a Counter-Narrative
…Does he ramble? He sure does. But what is the problem with that? No, it’s not a political speech where every line is thought out and scrubbed and edited to an inch of its life, all for the purpose of delivering a precise message in a precise way. It’s Clint Eastwood offering his general, barely rehearsed political thoughts.
And so it rambles. And, when it’s not rambling, it kills…
…I wonder if these sissies have ever actually seen a Clint Eastwood movie before. This is his style — sly, laconic, deadpan, wry. He’s a famously dry actor, and a famously small actor, in terms of theatrics. There’s an old joke which I just made up that the difference between Eastwood Raging and Eastwood Happy is what side of his mouth he moves his cheroot to.
So, this is Clint Eastwood. The same guy who’s been delivering killer lines with the slightest arch of the eyebrow for 50 years. Except he’s now that plus 50 years.
He killed…
Read the whole thing.
Also, Clint Eastwood’s Throat-Slashing Speech to the Republican National Convention
…Given the nature of today’s media it is impossible to address the fear of crime as an issue in a direct way. By having the most famous of movie cops appear right before his acceptance speech the Romney campaign may have let voters know that he understands their fears and is a law and order candidate. Would Clint ever campaign for a candidate who was not? Unthinkable. It would be like John Wayne campaigning for George McGovern.
‘Actor’s Studio’ Star Lipton: Eastwood Speech Not Funny, Vulgar
Was Eastwood’s sketch designed to bait media and spook Democrats?
He would never talk to Gene Hackman like that
How Awesome Was Clint Eastwood?
Update: Sharpton: Eastwood Speech ‘Offensive,’ ‘Demeaning’ Well. The speech was a complete success, then.
