Clint Eastwood loses the plot but makes Mitt Romney’s day

 
p3 clint sqaure fri edition 31.8 Actor-director Clint Eastwood speaks to the audience at the Tampa Bay Times Forum in Tampa, Florida, on August 30, 2012 on the last day of the Republican National Convention (RNC). The RNC culminates today with the formal nomination of Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan as the GOP presidential and vice-presidential candidates in the US presidential election. AFP PHOTO Stan HONDASTAN HONDA/AFP/GettyImages

At times he wasn’t so much Dirty Harry as Ramblin’ Rose. Yet with a speech that wobbled from surreal to incoherent, Clint Eastwood stole the show at Mitt Romney’s coronation in Florida early today.

Most bizarrely, the star acted out a conversation with an “invisible” President Obama on live primetime TV.

“I’ve got Mr Obama sitting here. And he’s — I was going to ask him a couple of questions,” he said.

But Eastwood, 82, managed to pull it off, finally leading the packed hall at the Republican national convention in Tampa in a chorus of his catchphrase, “Make my day”.

The audience had hoped for a star guest who could whip up the crowd before Mr Romney made his acceptance speech to launch his campaign for the presidency and they were not disappointed.

Tumultuous applause greeted Eastwood, who looked immaculate in a dark suit and striped pale blue tie. “Save some for Mitt,” he told the delighted crowd. Alas, he turned out to be The Man With No Script and his 11-minute speech meandered through confusing jokes, errors and long pauses.

His theme was disappointment with Mr Obama. “I remember three and a half years ago, when Mr Obama won the election … Everybody was crying. Oprah was crying. I was even crying.

“I haven’t cried that hard since I found out that there are 23 million unemployed people in this country. Now that is something to cry for because that is a disgrace.”

Mr Romney and his wife Ann looked thrilled, but opponents called the speech a “car crash” and Twitter was full of jokes.

Obama’s team tweeted a photo of the president in a chair saying, “This seat’s taken” and film critic Roger Ebert tweeted: “Clint, my hero, is coming across as sad and path-etic.”

But Mr Romney’s campaign team said: “Judging an American icon like Clint Eastwood through a typical political lens doesn’t work.”

Karl Rove, political strategist and former Bush adviser, added: “He’s Clint Eastwood. He doesn’t have to say a lot.”

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in