Clint Eastwood - WTF -- and RNC Open Thread?

What genius thought sticking this semi-senescent fossil out there to engage in this self-indulgent tomfoolery was a good idea?

This is one of the most baffling things I've ever seen at a Convention. 

Update:  From the truly bizarre, Eastwood, to dull and duller.  I thought Rubio's introduction speech was banal, cliche-ridden, and absolutely unoriginal.  Not a hint of poetry in it.  Pretty underwhelming. 

As for Romney, it really didn't strike me as much of a speech either.  There was no substance to it, he repeated the "apology tour" canard, and it just didn't really have much in the way of hooks.  Again, it was a poorly written -- or at best mediocre -- with no memorable lines that I heard. (Folks on MSNBC are being kinder than I am being, but I have watched a lot of nomination acceptance speeches and this was the worst I've heard since Carter's in 1980.)

I thought the Republicans had a much better night last night, notwithstanding Ryan's problems with the truth.  The line up of Rice, Martinez, and Ryan gave at least the illusion of a party with energy, diversity, and brains.  

I don't see what they were trying to accomplish tonight and I sure don't see a lot of bounce coming out of it.

What say you?

 

Comments

[diggit]

What has Clint been smoking? That was the most bizarre thing I've ever seen on live TV. Maybe ever.

[diggit]

Semi-senescent? Jeesh -- the guy couldn't pronounce "Biden" I can't think for a moment why someone thought this was a good idea? Is there a community of seniours in Mt. Carmel that will follow Clint into the voting booth?

[Sir Charles]

diggit,

You've got me.

I have no sense whatever what that was supposed to accomplish.

[Sir Charles]

I'm pretty unimpressed with Rubio too.

Jesus, what a banal speech. It couldn't be more cliche ridden and less felicitous in terms of language. Just an absolutely leaden bit of writing.

[diggit]

I was deeply embarrassed for Clint. For a moment I thought he might start complaining that communists have been poising the drinking water with flouride.

[Dave]

Go ahead...Make my pablum...

[Joe S]

On the bright side, it sounds like George Romney was a pretty great guy personally as well as being a brave public servant who stood up for civil rights when it was tough to do so in places where it was tough to do so.

[Robot Repairman]

I'll say this again, just because I'm still reeling from his bizarre, disjointed ramble . I grew up near Carmel when he was mayor and he did a damn fine job of it, too. He didn't give damn about what other people thought so long as he felt that he was right. And Carmel as a city benefited from this. I have no idea who the hell that guy was up on that stage tonight. Truly cringe-worthy given the legacy of this American legend. My best guess: He's calling Obama right now telling him "Mission accomplished, sir." Perhaps Romney will be motivated to release more tax returns in an effort to deflect attention away from this incoherent and bizarre performance.

[oddjob]

it sounds like George Romney was a pretty great guy personally as well as being a brave public servant who stood up for civil rights when it was tough to do so in places where it was tough to do so.

Yet another example of how in the case of Mitt the apple has managed to fall almost as far from the tree as is possible.

[low-tech cyclist]

I think Jamelle Bouie nailed it: "This is a perfect representation of the campaign: an old white man arguing with an imaginary Barack Obama."

I mean, is that Wingnut Nation to a 't', or what?

Nonetheless, having just watched the video of his talk, I too felt embarrassed for Clint. I can't imagine what Team Romney was thinking of, putting him up there like that.

But even Clint should have known better than to suggest that Obama would have been telling him and Romney to fuck themselves - since that was the clear implication. I can't imagine that even wingnuts would buy into the idea that Obama, who has projected about as perfect a public persona for a President of the United States as you could hope for - clear, dignified, self-controlled - goes around telling people to fuck themselves.

I mean, sure, he was arguing with an imaginary Obama, but how do you even imagine that, unless all you know of Barack Obama is that he's black, and you haven't learned anything else about the man during the past several years?

It's not like he's easy to confuse with Dick Cheney.

[Crissa]

I don't even really know what positions Eastwood is supposed to share with the Republican platform. Old and senile is what I'm hearing, but...

[nancy]

Would that we'd been reading more like this at the Guardian from our weak-tea press corps here at home.

They set out on their long trek with two deeply mendacious speeches. Mr Ryan's lies were more barefaced: he blamed the incumbent president for the closure of a General Motors plant which went belly up under his predecessor. Mr Romney's rewriting of recent history was just as bold. According to him, the Republicans in Congress accepted Mr Obama's victory in 2008 and, being the good and generous people that they are, rallied round his presidency. They did not block everything he did, or threaten to send government finances over a cliff, twice. The most partisan and obstructionist opposition in history has all been one giant misunderstanding. In a similar vein, Bain Capital was a "small" company that "helped" other businesses. The man with more wealth than the eight most recent presidents combined ended this section by reaching out to Americans on two jobs at $9 an hour. The hallucinogen powerful enough to cast Mr Romney as a man of the poor has not yet been confected.

[kathy a.]

nancy. that is awesome.

[kathy a.]

jerry brown is not the guy he used to be, but he challenges gov. christie to a 3 mile race.

[janinsanfran]

I've been working too hard this week to pay any attention to the Reps -- but I'm stunned that apparently Paul Ryan can't even tell the truth about his marathon time. A guy like that would know exactly how fast he had run. This one is a strange lie. Not consequential like his others, but deeply upsetting to the several million of us who have run these things.

[Sir Charles]

janinsanfran,

If this were Al Gore, they would crucify him.

It will be interesting to see if Ryan gets stuck with the liar tag that he so richly deserves.

[low-tech cyclist]

Wow.

Anyone who's run in a marathon knows in his/her bones the huge difference between doing it in four versus three hours. I've never run one myself, but I ran cross-country for most of high school, and I know the huge gulf between 9+ minute miles (4-hour marathon) and <7 minute miles (3 hours) over lesser distances - a difference that would be far more apparent in a marathon.

If he's run a marathon at all, which it looks like he did (and in just over 4 hours, assuming that was him), there's no way he could confuse the one with the other. That's a plain, simple, unnecessary, gratuitous lie.

[big bad wolf]

a few issues back, the new yorker has a fascinating article about a michigan dentist who overstated his marathon exploits. it's not available online, but worth checking out if you have the magazine around. i confess that, while i found the liar inexplicable, i found the folks pursuing him also odd. okay, some michigan dentist is lying about running and it is pretty obvious. next. but paul ryan lying about running would be worth the sort of pursuit given to the michigan dentist.

[low-tech cyclist]

bbw - with respect to the dentist, it all depends. If he was someone I ran into a lot socially, if he kept on making the same improbable boasts about his marathon exploits, and if either marathons mattered to me, or I just plain got tired enough of the guy, I could see myself doing a bit of Googling to get a handle on whether he was telling the truth.

But then, I'm not a big fan of loudmouths in general.

In Ryan's case, the lie doesn't matter that much in and of itself, but as part of a demonstrated pattern of lying that now seems to apply both to the political and the apolitical alike, it helps nail down the case that this guy isn't to be trusted any more than any other snake-oil salesman.

SC - hell yes. Gore got crucified by the media for 'lies' that were often clearly truthful, and were at worst arguable. They'd have hung him from the Washington Monument if they'd actually had a clear, demonstrable lie like this, no matter how trivial in content.

[big bad wolf]

the pursuers of the michigan dentist were not of the "a bit of googling" type. they were, it seemed to me, nearly as overinvested in disproving him, as his was in maintaining his fantasy. iow, they too became loudmouths, if more accurate ones.

i think the ryan lie about the marathon would be worth pursuing because it is easily comprehensible. it is much more simple to show his untruth than it is to show what gore said about the internet or love canal.

[Beckya57]

I've often thought during this campaign how ashamed George Romney would be of his son.

Jonathan Bernstein says that some of the MSM is actually calling out Ryan on his lies. Sure hope that continues....

[Sir Charles]

bbw,

I wonder if the marathon running community isn't a kind of honor culture, the sort of universe in which this kind of thing simply isn't done.

I don't really understand the fanaticism of such stuff, personally, but I think Ryan may have picked the wrong thing to lie about.