Clint Eastwood the man, the embarrassment

[Minotaur]

Be assured Clint gets a pass from me as he is an actor who has earned his celebrity and reputation. His political leaning is his alone to make and he has made it. Odd that in his case it was not his belief or his talent that comes into question but instead it is the embarrassment of seeing a professional who has avoided spotlights that you have a great deal of respect for, suddenly hanging a BA on a national stage, not so much because of his humor but because time seems to have replaced a dignity with something better defined as the ravages of time.

An icon was revealed in frailty leaving one to wonder just how many years would it take to get any movie completed? How many retakes to have a polished masterpiece? Who was this man who super-imposed obscene concepts onto an empty chair thus stealing the show?

If this were a Clint Eastwood movie it would be revealed that Clint Eastwood was a Liberal whose mission was to undermine a shady character trying to buy the White House because if that were the case, he succeeded.

 

[ITALIA]

I hope he has learned that an 82 year old who looks and acts like he is 92 can't play Dirty Harry anymore without looking like an ass.

 

[bdtex]

He was far less dignified and respectful than Pres. Obama would've been towards him. He was Dirty Harry on that stage,not Clint Eastwood.

Ryan didn't do the job and Willard isn't doing it and we're gonna let 'em go. Good advice Harry.

 

[Cicero]

My understanding is that Eastwood is a social liberal with conservative economic and cultural biases -- or something like that. This makes sense because if he were a total conservative Hollywood would have destroyed him decades ago.

Pretty much Eastwood is being criticized by the left for being very old, however, and not for the nature of his political message. It's probably the wrong approach to take for a party that needs the elderly to get out and vote for Obama. But it's all a gamble in politics isn't it? Who knows but this interesting tactic of the Left to spit in the face of the elderly and call them senile for their political views will inspire huge masses of the elderly to vote for Obama in November. Sure, why not?

 

[Mike]

Bravo Cic! You get it! You gave a both honest and fair assessment....rather than the dribble blather hidden in faux platitudes on top.

My understanding is that Eastwood is a social liberal with conservative economic and cultural biases -- or something like that. This makes sense because if he were a total conservative Hollywood would have destroyed him decades ago.

Pretty much Eastwood is being criticized by the left for being very old, however, and not for the nature of his political message. It's probably the wrong approach to take for a party that needs the elderly to get out and vote for Obama. But it's all a gamble in politics isn't it? Who knows but this interesting tactic of the Left to spit in the face of the elderly and call them senile for their political views will inspire huge masses of the elderly to vote for Obama in November. Sure, why not?

 

[ITALIA]

He is libertarian. So what does the party of family values think of the man who has married twice and with seven children from five different women? They don't seem to think much of Obama who has two children with his only wife.

 

[Cicero]

Well Mike it's all a matter of image and the side that makes fewer mistakes over all in getting its message out is going to win come November.

It's not just that the Left is making a mistake here in intimating that all elderly opposition to Obama senility-based but that this is only one of many political errors in judgement that the Obama political machine has been making. In contrast the Romney political machine is being relatively careful with the nature of their messaging.

 

[Mike]

Obviously, Clint is accepted for who he is and what he has accomplished. Clint has worked for a living. Obama is the embodiment of someone who played the race card to benefit from the system. Can't seem to find many jobs that weren't entitlement based that Obama was in nor many accomplishments other than graft, giving good speeches (note that Hitler gave great speeches too).

Obama makes Jimmy Carter look like a good president. Come to think of it, Liberals are the embodiment of racial and social intolerance hiding behind a party-line. Why is that?

 

[Cicero]

Funny enough Clint Eastwood is not running for office. Were he then his marriage background would probably become an issue. So there's that image 'problem' revealed to be a non-problem.

Again the message is not for the party faithful on either side of the political aisle. Both candidates are actually campaigning to reach the independents primarily. But nowadays a goodly number of independents are the elderly and critics of Clint Eastwood are intimating that all elderly not supporting Obama are inevitably senile. Talk about alienating a vital sub-segment of independents!

It's almost as if our leftwingers -- particularly the media leftwingers supporting Obama -- are no longer capable of envisioning how their defense of Obama in any given tract is going to end up potentially hurting their candidate.

 

[imreallyperplexed]

Invictus

Min,

Did you see the movie "Invictus"? It came out three or four years ago I believe and starred Morgan Freeman as President Nelson Mandela and Matt Damon as the captain of the (almost all white) national rugby team. The movie is based on a true story and was produced and directed by Clint Eastwood. I saw the movie and thought that it was a very good movie. Here is a link to the official movie trailer:

[video=youtube;RZY8c_a_dlQ]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RZY8c_a_dlQ[/video]

I've been thinking that Eastwood may be disappointed because Obama was not Mandela and did not singlehandedly heal the racial divide. He might even be pissed about something specific such as Obama saying anything about the Trayvon Martin (which seems to be a dog whistle issue for the Tea Party right.) Or it may be more complicated than that. (It probably is a lot more complicated than that.)

If this is the case, I suspect that Morgan Freeman (who recently gave $1 million to the Obama Super-Pac) and Matt Damon (who thinks like his buddies Brad Pitt and George Clooney that Obama is not quite progressive enough) disagree with him for much the same reasons that I would disagree with him and that is that the history of race relations in the United States and the history of race relations in South Africa are much different and that blacks are a majority in South Africa and are a minority in the United States.

Be assured Clint gets a pass from me as he is an actor who has earned his celebrity and reputation. His political leaning is his alone to make and he has made it. Odd that in his case it was not his belief or his talent that comes into question but instead it is the embarrassment of seeing a professional who has avoided spotlights that you have a great deal of respect for, suddenly hanging a BA on a national stage, not so much because of his humor but because time seems to have replaced a dignity with something better defined as the ravages of time.

An icon was revealed in frailty leaving one to wonder just how many years would it take to get any movie completed? How many retakes to have a polished masterpiece? Who was this man who super-imposed obscene concepts onto an empty chair thus stealing the show?

If this were a Clint Eastwood movie it would be revealed that Clint Eastwood was a Liberal whose mission was to undermine a shady character trying to buy the White House because if that were the case, he succeeded.

 

[bdtex]

I'm criticizing him precisely for his rambling message and not his age. He was just as hypocritical in the few policy points he actually made as Willard and Ryan were in their speeches and again,the way he delivered it was undignified. He would've fit right in with the healthcare townhall hooligans who were screaming "No government takeover of healthcare. And don't f*ck with my Medicare."

 

[Cicero]

The leftwing criticism of Eastwood is coming across as nearly universal contempt for the elderly [by way of intimating that all such must be senile] if they dare not to support Obama; and that's just bad messaging.

 

[colfax]

Be assured Clint gets a pass from me as he is an actor who has earned his celebrity and reputation. His political leaning is his alone to make and he has made it. Odd that in his case it was not his belief or his talent that comes into question but instead it is the embarrassment of seeing a professional who has avoided spotlights that you have a great deal of respect for, suddenly hanging a BA on a national stage, not so much because of his humor but because time seems to have replaced a dignity with something better defined as the ravages of time.

An icon was revealed in frailty leaving one to wonder just how many years would it take to get any movie completed? How many retakes to have a polished masterpiece? Who was this man who super-imposed obscene concepts onto an empty chair thus stealing the show?

If this were a Clint Eastwood movie it would be revealed that Clint Eastwood was a Liberal whose mission was to undermine a shady character trying to buy the White House because if that were the case, he succeeded.

Quite well written. Did you write this? 82 year old, has-ben's ought to fade away gracefully instead of going out like this.

 

[Saladin2]

Clint is bitter ignorant fool....Rambling and babbling for the amusement of angry white Republicans...He'll probably be dead in year

 

[middleview]

Eastwood was extraordinarily disrespectful towards Obama and the presidency. Obama would never have said "shut up" as Eastwood implied. He also would never of said anything like what Eastwood implied about "telling Romney to do something to himself". Obama is a gentleman and Eastwood is not. Eastwood said that Obama's ads are negative, but I guess he has missed the last three years of anti-Obama spew...the most disgusting and personal insults.

You think pointing out the flaws in Eastwood's performance amounts to an anti-senior attitude and that is just another example of your hope that dishonesty will work for you. I guess we will have to write off the congentitally dishonest voting block since that tactic does seem to work with the 20% who actually think Bush didn't crash the economy....

 

[Woolleybugger]

Clint is a libertarian mostly with deeply held conservative views about the government and moderately liberal social views. When I listen to libertarians in unguarded moments, they all sound like Republicans who for some reason decided there was more cachet in relabeling themselves in a psuedo-intellectual manner to impress themselves with their own intelligence. Most libertarians vote Republican, there is no real difference in the core principles. To watch Clint make a complete fool of himself was painful to watch. His character in Gran Torino was supposed to be fiction.

 

[MaryAnne]

Eastwood was extraordinarily disrespectful towards Obama and the presidency. Obama would never have said "shut up" as Eastwood implied. He also would never of said anything like what Eastwood implied about "telling Romney to do something to himself". Obama is a gentleman and Eastwood is not. Eastwood said that Obama's ads are negative, but I guess he has missed the last three years of anti-Obama spew...the most disgusting and personal insults.

You think pointing out the flaws in Eastwood's performance amounts to an anti-senior attitude and that is just another example of your hope that dishonesty will work for you. I guess we will have to write off the congentitally dishonest voting block since that tactic does seem to work with the 20% who actually think Bush didn't crash the economy....

And Obama would have never said,to tell Romney to,"Go f*** yourself!"as Eastwood pretended he did!

Even many Republicans are saying Eastwood was disrespectful to the Presdentand they did not approve of what he said.

And no,I am a Senior myself and would never have done what Eastwood did! If you have not learned some dignity by the time you are 82,you should go hide.

 

[ITALIA]

Funny, Raygun was President and his marriage background didn't seem to bother the Republican base. In fact he is remembered as a God like figure to them. As far as critics of Eastwood, he earned it no matter his age and the elderly and others will look at him as making their age group look bad.

 

[ITALIA]

The leftwing criticism of Eastwood is coming across as nearly universal contempt for the elderly [by way of intimating that all such must be senile] if they dare not to support Obama; and that's just bad messaging.

I don't think you are in any position to say what independents are thinking. And especially not in any position to determine what "left wing" criticism is really saying about the elderly.

 

[imreallyperplexed]

I don't think you are in any position to say what independents are thinking. And especially not in any position to determine what "left wing" criticism is really saying about the elderly.

Actually, I agree with Cicero that if the criticism of Clint Eastwood comes across as "any senior who does not support Obama is a senile old fool" that it will turn off a lot of people. And I have no doubt that Republicans will tell seniors that liberals think that all seniors who don't support Obama are senile old fools. I am not sure that that is the best message.

Clint Eastwood could have criticized the President of the United States without being so openly mocking and insulting as he was. For whatever reason that he gave that performance, it was unacceptable at the political convention of a major party. The fact that the Romney campaign and the RNC seemingly orchestrated an event like this is a sign of rank incompetence on their part. That is the most important story in my opinion.