Top Romney aides are scurrying like wet rats away from taking responsibility for booking Clint Eastwood’s bizarre “talk to the chair” act.
It also startled and unsettled Mr. Romney’s top advisers and prompted a blame game among them. “Not me,” an exasperated-looking senior adviser said when asked who was responsible for Mr. Eastwood’s speech. In interviews, aides called the speech “strange” and “weird.” One described it as “theater of the absurd.”
If they can’t take responsibility for their own convention, how will they behave when angry Americans start pointing fingers and blame Romney/Ryan for taking away their Medicare in a couple of years?
As for Eastwood (who I enjoy as an actor)? In 1988, George Bush briefly considered choosing him as his running mate; he picked Dan Quayle instead. I never thought I’d say this, but compared to the loopy Eastwood, Bush picked the right guy.
In any case, the Romney campaign gurus should be adult enough to accept responsibility and admit they took a gamble that did not pay off. In politics not everything goes as planned and that’s okay. But, no one likes a disloyal rat and that is precisely what Romney’s top advisers are coming across as by pretending they don’t know how Eastwood got a key prime time slot and turned it into an extemporaneous theater gig.
“If they can’t take responsibility for their own convention, how will they behave when angry Americans start pointing fingers…”
Amen to that.
Eastwood might have been a better choice 24 years ago. He’s 82 now, and for a lot of the speech he sounded like a confused elderly person experiencing the onset of dementia.
I certainly hope it’s not dementia. I really enjoy his movies and he seems like a good guy — minus some of his political positions.
He is, by the way, in favor of marriage equality.
Eastwood was an odd choice to begin with; he is outspokenly pro-choice and favors marriage equality. In fact most of his views over the years have been so liberal that I cannot fathom why he still associates with the Republican Party, especially with THIS Republican Party and its extreme right wing platform.
But last night was a disgrace. He disrespected the President; he disrespected the office of the President; and he made a complete and utter a*s of himself in the process.
Speaking for myself I certainly won’t be watching any of his shitty movies EVER. AGAIN. KISS MY a*s, EASTWOOD.
The broader question of who was actually running the show at the RNC is what baffles me. So many of the speeches were tone-deaf and only tangentially about Romney. Even if the candidate himself didn’t arrive in Florida with prior experience running a convention, he was surrounded by people who did. But, time after time, it seemed they weren’t allowed to do their jobs.
And, that also doesn’t speak well of a possible Romney administration. This is the least experienced major-party candidate in decades. Four years of elected office, period, which didn’t end well for him. Never on a city council, never a legislator, no state office other than governor, nada. Being the Mormon equivalent of a bishop doesn’t count towards experience serving constituents who elected you, either.
That’s not going to go well as Commander in Chief. It’s not going to work to bring business experts only into the Cabinet, or to have well-experienced hands there but refuse to listen or let them do their jobs.
Play Misty For Me is probably his only decent flick, since it crosses the line from regular action crap into mystery and suspense and minimal weaponry (except of course for the butcher knives and scissors wielded by Jessica Walter).
Oops the above was about Clint Eastwood.