I'm surprised that no one on DU gets Clint

[Boxcar Willie]

what he did was a wonderful piece of performance art.
He is an amazing artist and even though he's getting old he is not afraid to grow and experiment as a performer.
Clint - you're really special

[deutsey]

1. Bless his heart

[pnwest]

15. Ever notice how "Bless is heart" can be replaced

with "That poor, dumb bastard" in any given instance of use?

[JHB]

17. That's what makes it such a high-utility and versatile phrase

[Agnosticsherbet]

2. I still say he jumped the shark...

[niyad]

3. sure, or he could be getting senile

[Fresh_Start]

4. my grandfather now deceased

regularly had performances like that.
He railed on the blacks, jews, politicians, non-catholics...

[Boxcar Willie]

11. Was he a comedian?

maybe a famous one?
My grandpa used to shake his fist at the radio and/or TV and scream obscenities in a foreign language...

[Fresh_Start]

13. you are right, a lot of my grandfather ranting was in a foreign language

I don't think Eastwood had a career as a comedian so I don't think you can assume it was a comedic act

[WI_DEM]

5. It's hard to tell if your comments are authentic or satire?

Frankly I just thought it was a superstar coasting hoping that his personal magnitism and star authority would win out over a lack of preparation.

[immoderate]

6. He can be a great actor and director, and still an asshole.

That's what he showed us!

--imm

[dawg]

7. Sadly, I think this was for real.

Although pulling a Joaquin Phoenix on the RNC would be a truly awesome thing to do.

[CatWoman]

8. ACTUALLY

what we don't get is you

[Boxcar Willie]

12. Thanks!

[Arctic Dave]

9. I think the repugs had two choices.

1) Clint arguing with an invisible Obama in a chair and losing, or

2) Chuck Norris fighting an invisible Obama and getting his ass kicked.

[TheCowsCameHome]

10. Charlton Heston without the weaponry.

[nolabear]

14. Like Andy Kaufmann, eh? I'd advise him to fess up if that's the case.

Because his reputation is seriously

[riverwalker]

16. it was not the goofiness

that in itself can be endearing. It was the nastiness, the lies (blaming Obama for Afghanistan, really?) the snarky mean spiritedness of his speech. He had an opportunity to speak to millions of his vision for this country, a country that used to adore him. What did he have to say?
Nothing. He was McCain's crazy A-Rab lady, in pants.

[Boxcar Willie]

18. That's him

as a actor, perfect description.

[tama]

22. Obama has had 4 years to end the war in Afganistan,

but no end in sight and bodycount increasing. You get your priorities mixed. What is nasty is the war, not using nation wide platform to speak against war - and get even the even more militaristic party of US to root for call to end the war.

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

24. Here's what Eastwood said to the chair re Afghanistan

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

(APPLAUSE)

But we did it, and it is something to be thought about, and I think that, when we get to maybe — I think you’ve mentioned something about having a target date for bringing everybody home. You gave that target date, and I think Mr. Romney asked the only sensible question, you know, he says, “Why are you giving the date out now? Why don’t you just bring them home tomorrow morning?”

_______________________________

First, opposition to the war in Iraq was a good idea according to Clint. That's a critique of the entire GOP except for Ron Paul. Furthermore the war in Afghanistan has always been a bad idea; just ask the Russians. Another critique of the entire GOP except for Ron Paul. And regarding Obama's decision to bring the troops out, well Romney has criticized Obama's idea of giving a specific date for their return. Romney has stated there should be no deadline for bringing out the remaining 23,000. By criticizing Obama on this issue and getting the Republican crowd to applaud him, without realizing it they were doubly applauding against Romney and his increasing support for the neocon agenda. Like idiots, the crowd was laughing and applauding his criticism of Romney's policy without realizing it. I don't know if it was intentional on his part, but if you can't come out and lambast Romney and tell him to go fuck himself, you get the crowd to think they're applauding against Obama and not Romney.

[unc70]

38. YES! Well said. Some more examples

When he started talking to the Invisible Obama, I thought of "The Invisible Man" by Ralph Ellison and connected to all the racism at this convention. Then I saw the things you mentioned. Then the connection to the other invisible president missing from this convention, George W. Bush. "What were you thinking?"

Performance art as "frontier" justice. The treatment of Ron Paul and his supporters was the final straw. I saw this as a take-down of those who were forced to "shut up" at the convention. He had them cheering about lawyers not being Presidents, triggering the GOP anti-lawyer meme in support of a argument against Romney as much as Obama, both grads of Harvard Law.

There are just too many things like that in Clint's performance to have been chance, far too many. It was intentional. He knew that his speech/performance would dominate the news cycles.

RIP Andy Kaufman.

[tama]

19. Most inspired

political theater. Bipartisan passions can can make blind to dimensions and meanings beyond black-vs-white axis of us against them.

[HappyMe]

20. Promo for his new movie.

I think Mr. Scorpio has it right.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10021242084

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

21. "I can't tell him to do that to himself"

But by having invisible Obama say that, he did just that.

[tama]

23. And we heard loud and clear. n/t

[EC]

25. Hardly original

I've seen that routine before.

[southernyankeebelle]

27. It was called in prov and he didn't do a good job. Ask Mr. Lipton he explained what he

did wrong with the performance. He was just on MSNBC.

[kestrel91316]

32. "improv" - short for improvisation

[southernyankeebelle]

35. thanks for the correction

[renie408]

28. Do you mean short bus 'special'? Cause I can agree with you there. n/t

[Boxcar Willie]

31. Maybe?

[Quantess]

29. It was performance art, alright.

I have never seen anything like it. But I cannot honestly say it was good.

[Boxcar Willie]

30. Thank You

that was just that.

[ismnotwasm]

33. Nope

I've seen wonderful performance art; that sir, was neither wonderful or art. He looked like a sad old man, and given how vigirous and active he still is, his performance was extremely pathetic as well as very sad. Fuck those disgusting republicans for using him that way.

BTW-- it's not just DU, much of social media is having a field day making fun of him.

[cynatnite]

34. Yeah, his gesture of slashing across his throat was really special...

[Boxcar Willie]

37. Wasn't it?

what a actor...

[Amonester]

36. Robme/Rayn & Rove's sole plan is to divide us.

Ea$twood was part of that evil plan.

DUers don't get it? (Or is it you?)

[Horse with no Name]

39. That was NOT brilliant, nor inspired, nor entertaining

It was sad. It was bitter. It was delusional.

It was also a man that just lost quite a few fans last night spewing partisan hatred, myself included.

As a nurse, I have never worked for a doctor that I used personally because I simply do not want to know that they don't care about their patients--as has been my experience with many that I have worked with.

By the same token, I could care less that someone contributes to the republican party. However, when they seek to use THEIR fame to further the republican agenda, I simply am done supporting anything they do. They have just become part of what is wrong in this country.

[LanternWaste]

40. I'm not a fan of Laurie Anderson either...

I'm not a fan of Laurie Anderson, either...