Did Clint Get Cold Feet?


There was a moment in Clint Eastwood’s rant last night that struck me then and strikes me even more now, when he explained that there are people of all ideologies in Hollywood.

I know what you are thinking. You are thinking, what’s a movie tradesman doing out here? You know they are all left-wingers out there, left of Lenin. At least that is what people think. That is not really the case. There are a lot of conservative people, a lot of moderate people, Republicans, Democrats, in Hollywood. It is just that the conservative people by the nature of the word itself play closer to the vest. They do not go around hot-dogging it. [my emphasis]

When he said it last night, I couldn’t tell whether he put himself in the conservative or the moderate classification (he doesn’t fit either label well, in any case).

He seemed, quite literally, trying to figure out what his political beliefs were on stage, talking to a chair.

Add in the fact that Clint reportedly had a script and no chair but threw out the script and got the chair at the last minute.

Then add the evidence that Clint demonstrably didn’t know what the fuck he was talking about. He criticized lawyer-Presidents at a party for a guy with a JD from the same school as Obama.

See, I never thought it was a good idea for attorneys to the president, anyway.

He evinced an isolationist stance on Afghanistan that would be totally at odds with GOP ideology if they discussed anything besides Israel.

But you thought the war in Afghanistan was okay. You know, I mean—you thought that was something worth doing. We didn’t check with the Russians to see how they did it—they did there for 10 years.

And while much of what Clint said was pitch perfect for Mitt’s campaign–the focus on jobs, Romney as a quote unquote stellar businessman, the support for Gitmo–ultimately this was a batty old man demanding that citizens get their country back again, a view profoundly at odds with the idea of that party thrown by the huge corporations and billionaires that own Mitt’s campaign and are trying to buy our government.

I would just like to say something, ladies and gentlemen. Something that I think is very important. It is that, you, we—we own this country.

(APPLAUSE)

We—we own it. It is not you owning it, and not politicians owning it. Politicians are employees of ours.

(APPLAUSE)

And—so—they are just going to come around and beg for votes every few years. It is the same old deal. But I just think it is important that you realize that you’re the best in the world. Whether you are a Democrat or Republican or whether you’re libertarian or whatever, you are the best. And we should not ever forget that. And when somebody does not do the job, we got to let them go.

It’s as if between the time news of Clint’s speech leaked while he flew to Florida and the time he walked into a hall of people who are far more rabid than he is–one that fundamentally denies most Americans get a stake in the country–he began to figure it out. He began to get that the Republicans are no more interested in letting the owners of this country enjoy it than anyone else.

Clint Eastwood actually had something to say last night. But it’s like he couldn’t figure out how to say it at that party without babbling to a chair.

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49 replies
  1. OrionATL says:

    maybe mr. mayor suddenly became reflective on the way to the convention.

    maybe mr. mayor had a stroke on the way to the convention.

    maybe mr. mayor had several stiff ones on the way to the convention.

    personally, i suspect the latter, based on this pablumtude:

    “…But I just think it is important that you realize that you’re the best in the world. Whether you are a Democrat or Republican or whether you’re libertarian or whatever, you are the best. And we should not ever forget that. And when somebody does not do the job, we got to let them go…”

    you made my day, old man.

    you f—in’ made my day.

    what a pleasure to see this scheming, charlton-heston, hypermasculine moment fall flat on its pudgy, white, right-wing face.

  2. seedeevee says:

    It is sad to see “journalists” complain that independent thinking means that it is “evidence that Clint demonstrably didn’t know what the fuck he was talking about”.

    Sad.

    That speech would have been fucking awesome at the Democratic Convention. But too much anti-war stuff will ruin the Obama parade, don’t you think?

    Back to the journalism thing — You got any evidence that Romney was ever, to use Eastwood’s word, an “attorney”?

    Your tribalism is showing and it is a sad sad thing to see.

  3. Sun Never Sets says:

    usa May Place Group With Ties to Pakistan on Terror List
    new york times 8.31.2012
    With a Congressional deadline looming, the 0 administration appears ready to designate the Haqqani network as a terrorist organization, risking a new breach in relations with Pakistan.

    want to know WHY the Haqqani network is being designated as a “terrorist network”? because they are actually fighting back and against the infidel invaders and occupiers. the world is supposed to roll over and offer itself for the usa to plunder and subjugate at will. LET’s GET WITH THE PROGRAM, PEOPLE!!! Will save us all a lot of needlessly wasted time, treasure and blood!!!

  4. Jim White says:

    I hadn’t gotten around to watching Clint’s bit until just now. This at the end stood out for me:

    We don’t have to be…what I’m saying, we do not have to be mental masochists and vote for somebody that we don’t really even want in office just because they seem to be nice guys

    That definitely applies to lots of us who likely will hold our noses and vote for Obama, but it seems to me that it describes even more fully a Republican Party that has “settled for” Mitt even though hardly anyone can build up real passion for him. I’m betting that part made Mitt and his campaign staff cringe more than just about any other part of it.

  5. scribe says:

    Just remember that the “taking our country back” line is racist dogwhistle for “kick that usurping Kenyan n*ggger out of the White House”.

    And, Seedeevee – go fuck yourself.

  6. Jim White says:

    @scribe: Yeah, speaking of “Go fuck yourself”, it was especially galling that Eastwood took the lowpoint of Cheney’s behavior in the Senate (when he told Leahy to fuck himself when Leahy was trying to block the Patriot Act) and then ascribed it to Obama and Biden. Typical Republican projection on that one.

  7. Peterr says:

    @seedeevee:

    Try this: “After graduating from Brigham Young University in 1971, he earned dual degrees from Harvard Law and Harvard Business School.”

    Of course, that’s just hearsay from http://www.mittromney.com/learn/mitt . Mitt hasn’t produced his actual long-form, wet-ink-signature Harvard Law diploma, so no one really knows for sure.

  8. OrionATL says:

    @coral:

    LOL. thank you, coral!

    michael moore wrote:

    “Speaking to Invisible Obama last night, in a performance that seemed to have been written by Timothy Leary and performed by Cheech & Chong, Clint Eastwood was able to drive home to tens of millions of viewers the central message of this year’s Republican National Convention: We Are Delusional and Detached from Reality. Vote for Us! ..”

  9. OrionATL says:

    @ex-PFC Chuck:

    thanks for the laugh, soldier.

    esquire’s charlie pierce,

    on what an honest willerd could have said:

    “… You People. Let me stand here for a moment and look out at You People. Hey there, Massachusetts! How you doing? You were a great little pit stop, and then you were a great little punchline. Yo, Wisconsin, what’d you think about our boy last night? The blue eyes. The catch in the throat. You grow ’em maudlin up there, I’ll give you that. He keeps trying to get me to sign on to these economic plans of his, the ones that will render the country into Us and You People, and he doesn’t know that I signed that deal with myself before he was born. He thinks there’s something moral, something religious, about the notion that there are two kinds of people — Me, and The Help. He thinks there’s some sort of arc to the moral universe that bends slowly toward the banks in the Caymans. I know better. God helps those who help themselves to everything they can grab. I’m going to have to sit the boy down one day and explain it all to him but, for now, all he really needs to know is who pulls the strings here, and what the way of the world is, because…

    I’m Mitt Romney, bitches, and I’m all you got left…”

    Read more: http://www.esquire.com/blogs/politics/romney-convention-speech-12203573#ixzz25AEgdrza“…

  10. bell says:

    politics sure is divisive in the usa.. people swearing at others and they don’t even know them.. that is interesting..
    i like it when someone doesn’t sound rehearsed and veers off the usual script.. i find words like conservative are over used and don’t mean much.. same thing democracy and freedom. they are all loaded words that usually illicit knee jerk responses which politicians and propagandists like using.. tell me what is conservative about this? i ain’t judging – just observing….and for the record, i like clint eastwood even if he is a man of contradictions.
    Eastwood has fathered at least seven children by five different women and been described as a “serial womanizer”.

  11. joanneleon says:

    On Afghanistan, it sounded like the audience agreed with him or at least a significant portion of it. I don’t think Mitt’s policy on Afghanistan is too popular with his base and he and Ryan have dabbled in some Afghanistan policy criticism in recent weeks, which surprised me.

  12. OrionATL says:

    @bell:

    i like eastwood the actor a lot; i love the spaghetti westerns.

    we are not judging eastwood the actor, director, politician, person, lover, or parent.

    we are judging a speech eastwood made at a political convention in the context of american political flimflammery – specifically nominating convention flimflammery.

    as the flimflammery it was intended to be, eastman’s speech failed – and failed amusingly.

    enjoy!

  13. emptywheel says:

    @bell: Note I said I didn’t think Clint fit either the conservative or moderate label. When he invokes libertarian–which he has self-identified as–or “whatever” at the end, he may be thinking of himself.

  14. emptywheel says:

    @seedeevee: I’m sure he knows what his own views are. But they are notably not the same as those of Mitt Romney, and his stating them at Mitt Romney’s party was pretty unhelpful to his narrative.

    By ignorant, I meant ignorant about Mitt.

  15. OrionATL says:

    @bell:

    bell sez “…politics sure is divisive in the usa.. people swearing at others and they don’t even know them.. that is interesting…”

    you’ve obviously never watched a red-hot debate in parliament.

    or followed a borough election.

    where do you live – middle-earth?

  16. TG says:

    As a Russian once said to me after Ronald Reagan was elected president:

    “You need a better actor.”

  17. scribe says:

    Courtesy of Josh Marshall:

    “It had some of the cadence of Admiral Stockdale, with a hint of dirty old man. Bizarre can be cool. But not sure it was the moment for bizarre.”

  18. seedeevee says:

    @Peterr: Hey Bright as Molasses,

    Anywhere in your brainstorm does it say that Romney was an attorney. You know, there is a difference in “being an attorney” and “graduating from a law school”.

    A big difference.

  19. seedeevee says:

    @emptywheel: OK.

    Maybe Eastwood was just showing all of us that being an American (or Thinking Human Being, if you like) is more than speaking what others expect of you.

    Maybe he knows Romney all too well and decided that in the twilight of his (Eastwood’s, that is) life he was going to speak his mind and not just be some other dude on Team Romney.

    Maybe if we had more people speak their minds, instead of being bullshit team players, we’d have a better picture of those around us.

  20. seedeevee says:

    @scribe: Scribe,

    Why’d ya have bring up the “fuck yourself” routine, you low-life-simple-minded-troglodytic-racist-trolling-ass-licking-cat-lover?

  21. seedeevee says:

    @Jim White: As for Cheney backing the Patriot Act?

    Any comments on Obama and Biden’s “Strengthening and Expanding” of said act?

    I know it is more fun to speak ill of Cheney, but how about some truth around here instead of base tribalism?

  22. Jim White says:

    @seedeevee: Heh. Kinda using that “tribalism” quite a bit, aren’t you? And it’s coming off completely as projection.

    If you knew anything about me, you’d know that while I abhor Cheney and his tactics–and even strongly suspect him having a connection to the anthrax attacks to get the Patriot Act passed-I was just as upset with Obama for his applying the legal rubber stamp to Cheney and Bush’s crimes. Obama strengthening and expanding the Patriot Act is but a small part of why I hate his presidency. His legalizing torture, his kill list, over-reliance on drones, expansion of the war in Afghanistan and refusal to prosecute banksters each is enough to earn permanent scorn.

    So where is the tribalism in that? I despise bending the rule of law to favor the rich, powerful, war-makers, or large corporations. If I’m tribalistic at all, it’s against the 0.001% elite who have bought our entire political process and are in the process of buying immunity for themselves as they make off with every bit of wealth in the world. Both political parties play large roles in this process.

  23. OrionATL says:

    @P J Evans:

    you’re right, p.j.

    the guy is a troll sent to disrupt discussion.

    the principal characteristic of a rightwing troll is superciliousness as in this comment:

    “…seedeevee on August 31, 2012 at 9:13 pm said:
    @JohnT: Your words lack any meaning. Did you have something to say? …”

    sdv is doing his assigned job, to clog up and misdirect this post’s communications. he has directed a meaningless riposte to each commenter who has criticized his initial comments, no doubt anticipating further opportunities for obfuscating commentary.

  24. OrionATL says:

    @P J Evans:

    i got a hav-a-heart trap handy – designed for rats, squirrels, and rabid cats. that might be just the ticket for this cat.

    personally, though, a pitchfork would be more satisfying :))

    shovel would be handy for later.

  25. Petrocelli says:

    Dadnabbit, I have tons of great Steaks to BBQ, no time for BBQing trolls too …

    Clint hit a low point by attributing obscenities to a sitting POTUS and he should apologize, if he has one shred of decency.

    If I were Obama, I would tell Biden’s handlers … Release The Hounds !

  26. Petrocelli says:

    Sorry about your power interruptions, bmaz, I’m send ya Steaks, Lobster and chilled Leffe …

    Happy Labor Day to the Greatest Bunch of Friends on teh toobz !

  27. Milton Arbogast says:

    Clint is in FAVOR of closing Gitmo. He says that Obama did one thing right: he overruled Holder on trying terrorists in NYC. And the very clear implication is that Obama did one thing wrong: he didn’t close Gitmo.

    The key is that the following line is a LAUGH LINE, but nobody laughed, because he was talking to zombie Republican drones who don’t laugh without clear permission:

    “Well, I know even people in your own party were very disappointed when you didn’t close Gitmo. And I thought, well closing Gitmo — why close that, we spent so much money on it.”

    EVEN PEOPLE IN YOU OWN PARTY… In other words, people like me, Clint Eastwood, who aren’t in your own party were very disappointed.

    Your analysis is correct in your post, and the Gitmo reference supports it. Clint thinks, correctly, that Obama is a congenital liar who turned coat when he was elected. And he hates him for it.

  28. seedeevee says:

    @Jim White: I get it Jim.

    You like to use “projection” a lot. I like to use “tribalism” a lot. Many of these comment makers here like to pretend to be great and powerful Troll Hunters.

    Your comment at #32 shows very little of the “tribalism” I am finding here. Your comment at #8, as an individual nugget of comment, appears more so. I am sorry for my bias.

    At least we can all agree that Cheney is a POS that should be rotting in a prison somewhere. But I, also, think Obama should be sitting in a cell right next to him. Would you go that far?

    As for your concerns with me using “tribalism”, look no further than your compatriots here and the instantaneous use of “troll”, “rightwing troll”,”paid” troll, “liar”, etc. etc. Sure does sound like the thought police are trying to round up the usual suspects. While, at the same time, being complete and utter factual idiots.

    Do you really think the responses I received here would have been any different if I wrote my comments at Red State or at some other tribe’s graffiti wall? No they wouldn’t. The same tired “troll hunters”. The same purification tests.

    I do appreciate emptywheel actually responding contextually to my comment. Many of the commenter makers here do have brains and thoroughly use them. Others are just Tribalistic Troll Hunters that need to get a life.

    Thanks for taking the time, Jim.

  29. gallowaytrail says:

    Maybe Clint did have a stiff drink, likewise the low-learner delegates who laughed and whooped like comedy club drunks, even at the Afghanistan remarks, which should have shut them up. Reminded me of the “Cabaret” pathos.

  30. Brenda Koehler says:

    @OrionATL:

    I like Michael Moore but he’s way off base here. I thought Eastwood’s speech was great. And if the mainstream media doesn’t like it, that’s all the more indication that it rocked.

  31. Brenda Koehler says:

    “He evinced an isolationist stance on Afghanistan that would be totally at odds with GOP ideology if they discussed anything besides Israel.”

    Du-uh!! And had the crowd cheering for it too. You know some people CAN show the utter worthlessness of the Obama presidency and the abysmal wrongheadedness of republican ideology simultaneously. Why anyone would call that “batty” is beyond me.

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