I don’t know how many people actually watched the mere 11 minutes and 15 seconds of video of Clint Eastwood addressing the Republican convention that caused such a hullabaloo on Twitter and in newspapers but I just did now and it depressed the hell out of me.
Not because it was a bad performance, it wasn’t, indeed it was excellent. Laugh out loud funny at numerous occasions, comically irreverential to President Obama without going over the line, included a few decent points the speaker wanted to get across and got the crowd fired up and on its feet with a few one-liners. “I can’t do that to myself either” should be going down in GOP Convention’s Hall of Fame, not lampooned in a sea of boringer-than-thou derision.
Seriously, what else do you want from a celebrity interlude that’s basically buttering up the masses before the Candidate himself comes on?
No, the video depressed me because we don’t seem to have come very far since the ejection of Walter Wolfgang from the Labour Conference in 2005. Walter was 82 that day he was huckled out of the building for piping up while Jack Straw defended the Iraq invasions, the same age as Clint Eastwood is now, and the lesson still seems to be that if you don’t fit the modern political mould of shiny, polished, scriptless soundbites then there is no space for you and if you don’t like it, for goodness sake just shut up and get on with it.
Are people really so intrinsically resentful of the existence of the right of centre that they will exaggerate to the point of idiocy a speech by an otherwise non-political Hollywood legend dropping in to lend his support for ten minutes? Furthermore, as a knee-jerk reaction to needlessly negative headlines, even the Romney campaign distanced themselves from Clint, calling his performance “strange”, “weird” and “theatre of the absurd”.
I don’t know, all I hope is that the people from all corners joining in the cacophonic din of catcalling over this actually watched the video and it actually fell short of whatever standards they genuinely hold within themselves for such events.
For me, more ramshackle, genuine, funny and irreverent conference speeches going forwards please, and hecklers too. This stale, stolid party political grip that we’re in needs to be broken and replaced with something real but, well, if Clint Eastwood can’t break it, who the hell can?
(All that said, Jon Snow is very funny taking his opportunity on this: “I’ve not had this much joy from an old man since Dick Cheney non-fatally shot one”)
#1 by Indy on September 1, 2012 - 1:36 pm
I quite enjoyed it as well but was surprised by Clint Eastwood appearing. Why? This is a recent quote from him on same sex marriage.
“These people who are making a big deal about gay marriage. I don’t give a fuck about who wants to get married to anybody else! Why not?! We’re making a big deal out of things we shouldn’t be making a deal out of … Just give everybody the chance to have the life they want.”
One wonders if the cheers would have been quite so enthusiastic if he had said that! Maybe he will. That would be a hoot.
It is kind of odd when a Hollywood star seems more “real” (i.e complex and maybe a bit of a mixture of things, possibly even a tad nutty about some things, as most of us are) than the people around them.
#2 by Jeff on September 1, 2012 - 2:02 pm
I’m sorry Indy but i find that quite disappointing too.
Clint is allowed to support, and publicly give that support, to Mitt without having to sign up to every last Republican policy out there.
By all means raise concerns with Republican policies on this issue, but to do so in the context of this speech is kind of silly.
#3 by Indy on September 1, 2012 - 6:04 pm
Not really, given some of the insanity of the religious right. This is the party that nominated someone who believes that if a woman is legitimately raped her body will have a way of shutting a pregnancy down. And he is not just a freak – rather, there are a lot of freaky people in the GOP.
I do find it surprising that Clint Eastwood would want to be associated with that as he appears somewhat more intelligent and – dare I say it – liberal on these kinds of issues which are, of course, far more important in American politics than in ours.
#4 by Jeff on September 1, 2012 - 8:15 pm
“This is the party that nominated someone who believes that if a woman is legitimately raped her body will have a way of shutting a pregnancy down”
One bad egg doesn’t mean the entire party should be tarred with the same brush; after all, the SNP is the party that nominated someone to be a councillor who believes gay people “are very sad people”. Is that the SNP’s view? All people in all parties can play the same game, but it gets very tiring very quickly.
I think what Mitt thinks is more important than what Todd Akin thinks. And what Mitt said the other night should be more important than Clint and his empty chair, but there aren’t many column inches or minutes of Jon Stewart airtime on that, sadly.
Picking off the odd comment that an opponent makes, or someone way, way down the food chain makes, to turn it into a sensational Daily Mail-esque headline doesn’t look like progress to me.
#5 by Indy on September 1, 2012 - 11:06 pm
Mitt Romney supports overturning Roe vs Wade. Republicans are behind the new laws in 5 states requiring women prior to having an abortion to have an ultrasound which ideally should involve having a probe inserted inside them – in 4 of those 5 states no exception is made for women who are pregnant as a result of rape. It only remains to add that the Republicans oppose contraceptive sex eduction in schools, that is their official policy, instead supporting telling kids to abstain.
Todd Akin is not a bad apple. He is the tip of an extremely unpleasant iceberg that thinks Romney is the man.
#6 by Jeff on September 2, 2012 - 12:40 pm
That’s fine, I’m with you, we’re pretty far off-topic now though which is my only point.
#7 by Alasdair Stirling on September 1, 2012 - 4:17 pm
Couldn’t agree more Jeff.
#8 by Aldos Rendos on September 2, 2012 - 8:51 pm
Jon Snow has changed a bit 😉
#9 by Jeff on September 2, 2012 - 9:00 pm
Gaaaaah! I was even thinking at the time ‘don’t get Jon Snow and Jon Stewart mixed up, don’t get Jon Snow and Jon Stewart mixed up’. And what did I do?
It’s that missing h, it messes with my -ead.