It must have seemed a brilliant idea at the time: Get a major Hollywood star and American icon and spring him as a surprise speaker, injecting celebrity power into the night and revving up delegates.
But Clint Eastwood’s appearance, in which he addressed an empty chair as though he were speaking to President Obama, strayed far from the script (if he had one), and veered between incoherent and insulting.
At one point, he acted as though the imaginary Obama was spewing venom at Romney. "He can't do that to himself. You're absolutely crazy!" Mr. Eastwood said, in “response.” "You're getting as bad as Biden. Biden is the intellect in the Democratic Party. It's just kind of a grin with a body behind it."
According to the Associated Press, Romney aides were wincing backstage. CNN’s Howard Kurtz tweeted that “Clint's empty chair act weirdest convention moment I have ever seen.”
On the floor, most delegates seemed so overcome by his star power – and the chance to finish his famous “make my day” line for him – that they didn’t care, but the speech didn’t play well to the rest of America, or serve as a good lead-up to Marco Rubio and Romney.
The only good thing to come out of it: There is now an “Invisible Obama” Twitter account.
