Written by Larry   

Eastwood said to thundering applause. “When somebody doesn’t do the job you got to let them go.” Does this apply to the House Republicans? Eastwood has a seeming gravity that makes him superficially credible in interviews. As a consequence, his often offbeat wit can miss as often as it hits without ruffling him a bit. It was a lousy speech, and a sad spectacle. In Tampa at the RNC, Clint proved the truth of his words from the Dead Pool: “Opinions are like assholes, everybody has one.”

Film critic Roger Ebert tweeted, "Clint, my hero, is coming across as sad and pathetic," as Eastwood adlibbed Thursday night to an audience of millions — and one empty chair — on stage at the Republican National Convention in Tampa, Fla. "He didn't need to do this to himself. It's unworthy of him." Clint’ delivered a rambling off-the-cuff diatribe that left many wishing he had not bothered or that the campaign had used their big bucks video showing a beautifully done biographical mini-documentary on Romney's early years. Some video director moved heaven and earth to make Romney seem almost human, and ... they ran it before network coverage began, except for FOX and C SPAN.

As the Daily Kos observed, “At first, people tried to work out why the old mumbly guy was hearing voices in his head. But it wasn't his head, it was, uh the chair, which wasn't much better. But wait, this could turn out genuinely funny. It was, after all, Clinton Fucking Eastwood! So for about three minutes, it was debatable how things might turn out. But then it was no longer debatable, as minute after interminable minute passed no coherent point or end in sight and people remembered that Clint F@*king Eastwood isn't supposed to be funny!”

This delirium on national TV from the director of Invictus where Nelson Mandela declares: “Just words, but they helped me to stand when all I wanted to do was lie down.” Where were the words from Clint that would help America to stand? They were nowhere to be found.

“In the fell clutch of circumstance,
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeoning of chance,
My head is bloody, but unbowed.”

Times are bad and citizens, political leaders, and aspiring candidates must come together and collaborate to make things better. Our heads may be bloody and we may be in the clutch of fell circumstance, but this does not excuse any from speaking the truth and doing the right things. This means you – Clint.

Seriously, during prime-time, at the Republican National Convention, it was the kind of audition monologue your drunken uncle thinks will make him a shoo-in for community theater “Hamlet.” One might ask, “What were you thinking?” Unfortunately, it seems you were not thinking or your thoughts are those of a person in the throes of Dissociative identity disorder [DID]. You DID it!

Clint please go back to making movies. You have a right to your political preferences as do all citizens, even those the Republicans are trying to disenfranchise. You have skill and a record of achievement in the movie business. Regrettably, you have no credibility as a political theorist or a serious practitioner of political discourse.

Science writer Chris Mooney in the Republican Brain, explores brain scans, polls, and psychology experiments to explain why conservatives today believe more wrong things; appear more likely than Democrats to oppose new ideas and less likely to change their beliefs in the face of new facts; and sometimes respond to compelling evidence by doubling down on their current beliefs. This book is not a polemic. It is a compelling presentation of new and ever expanding evidence of real cognitive differences between conservatives and all other orientations. Sadly, Clint Eastwood gave a demonstration of this narrow, closed minded approach to thought and persuasion.

Parenthetically one has to ask how a man who has now fathered at least seven known children by five separate women can be a headliner for a party that trumpets its devotion to family values. For that matter, how can a serial adulterer and his latest mistress/wife be symbols of a commitment to family values? Perhaps Clint, Newt, and Calista personify the Republican Party’s stampede from a congruence of their slogans and their actions. In so many crucial areas of public discourse and consequence, Republican actions speak so loudly it is nearly impossible to hear or heed what they say.

Perhaps Grandpa Simpson puts the essence of Clint’s speech most succinctly.

“We can't bust heads like we used to, but we have our ways. One trick is to tell 'em stories that don't go anywhere - like the time I caught the ferry over to Shelbyville. I needed a new heel for my shoe, so, I decided to go to Morganville, which is what they called Shelbyville in those days. So I tied an onion to my belt, which was the style at the time. Now, to take the ferry cost a nickel, and in those days, nickels had pictures of bumblebees on 'em. Give me five bees for a quarter, you'd say.

Now where were we? Oh yeah: the important thing was I had an onion on my belt, which was the style at the time. They didn't have white onions because of the war. The only thing you could get was those big yellow ones...”

In February 2012, Clint told Fox News that he would not endorse any politician. He described himself as "an Eisenhower Republican." Sixth months later Clint is talking to an empty chair on behalf of a Republican candidate who could not make a patch on Eisenhower’s ass.
Lo how the lofty have fallen! Due to Clint’s melt down, America must still look for a few good men [and women] to rise up and live out the true meaning of our creed.

Clint you could have made U S proud, but instead, you made us sad.

Where was Walt Kowalski when we really needed him? Where was this grumpy, gruff and grandly gallant American senior who lay down his life for his friends?