The Republican convention looked to Clint Eastwood to provide some gravitas – but it didn't quite work out as planned
It was something no one ever needed to see. An aged and frail-lookingClint Eastwood – the symbolic definition of American masculinity – rambling often incoherently to an empty chair on stage, in front of millions of TV viewers at the Republican national convention.
On Thursday afternoon, RNC organizers announced that the esteemed 24-time Academy Award nominee would deliver a speech on the final night of the convention.
Regardless of your political affiliations, it should have been a spine-tingling moment. Eastwood is a hero of American cinema, a titan of the tough-guy genre. What could go wrong?
A chair.
For almost 12 cringeworthy minutes, Eastwood engaged in a clunky, awkward and depressing debate with "Invisible Obama," who viewers were encouraged to believe was sitting on a cheap stool stage left.
Eastwood mocked Obama for going to law school. (You know, the same law school Mitt Romney attended.) He criticized Obama for driving a "gas-guzzler" in front of a room full of people for whom guzzling gas is a minor concern. And he made an off-color joke that had the convention organizers wincing.
This majestic failure of oratory provoked a number of elder statesmen of American culture to express their disappointment in under 140 characters:
Naturally, the speech lit up the social media world and its snarky, unforgiving hand:
A few short hours after the speech, a Twitter @InvisibleObama emerged, tweeting "...". That was retweeted more than 4,200 times. Dirty Harry is responsible for getting an ellipses retweeted more than 4,200 times.
Also, #Eastwooding? That's now a thing and it looks like this:
Just after midnight, actual Obama chimed in:
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