POLITICO Staff Eastwood's rambling RNC speech

TAMPA, Fla. — Clint Eastwood delivered a rambling performance at the Republican National Convention on Thursday night in a speech that included the Hollywood legend speaking to an empty stool and telling an imaginary President Barack Obama “I’m not going to shut up” and calling the president “absolutely crazy.”

The Romney campaign defended Eastwood’s performance, saying, “His ad-libbing was a break from all the political speeches and the crowd enjoyed it.”


( PHOTOS: Clint Eastwood gets political)

Eastwood, who was unveiled earlier in the day as the mystery speaker before Sen. Marco Rubio’s introduction of Mitt Romney’s nomination acceptance speech, stepped onto the stage at the convention center and criticized Obama’s policies while barely mentioning the GOP presidential nominee.

“So I’ve got Mr. Obama sitting here and I just was going to ask him a couple of questions. But you know, I remember 3½ years ago when Mr. Obama won the election and, no, I wasn’t a big supporter,” Eastwood said as he looked at the empty stool next to his podium.

“I was watching that night when he was having that thing and they were talking about hope and change,” he added. “‘Yes we can’ and it was dark and outdoors and it was nice, people were lighting candles, they were saying ‘I just thought this is great.’ Everybody’s crying, Oprah was crying. And I was even crying.”

“I haven’t cried that hard since I found out that there’s 23 million unemployed people in this country. Now that is something to cry for because that is a disgrace, a national disgrace, and we haven’t done enough; obviously, this administration hasn’t done enough to cure that,” he said.

The actor, who officially endorsed Romney earlier this month, continued on a winding rant in which he hit the president for failing to keep his promises.

“Somebody had the stupid idea of trying terrorists in downtown New York City. … I know you were against the war in Iraq and that’s OK, but you thought the war in Afghanistan was OK. You thought that was something worth doing. We didn’t check with the Russians to see how they did there for the 10 years,” Eastwood said.

“I’m not going to shut up. It’s my turn,” the actor blurted out a few moments later, still glancing over at the make-believe Obama sitting in the empty chair next to him. “I just wondered, all these promises, and then I wondered about you know, … what do you want me to tell Romney? I can’t tell him that. … Tell him yourself. You’re absolutely crazy.”

Eastwood seemed to thrill the audience with his celebrity and swagger, drawing cheers and chortles — even if some of the laughter seemed of the nervous variety, of the sort one gives an elderly uncle at the Thanksgiving table in the middle of a story that doesn’t seem to be going anywhere.

( Also on POLITICO: Eastwood's wildest quotes)

“I just don’t like to see people make fun of somebody like that — no matter who it is,” said Tom Fortiwiecz from Cleveland. “It was too much.”

The speech could certainly prove a distraction from Romney’s speech as clips from the convention are replayed over and over again on the morning TV news. During and well after the actor’s speech Thursday night, reporters were busy tweeting out animated reactions to Eastwood’s performance.

And Democrats were quick to pounce, with Obama deputy campaign manager Stephanie Cutter tweeting: “Wow.”

“Referring all questions on this to Salvador Dali,” Obama campaign spokesman Ben LaBolt said in an email to POLITICO, referring to the late surrealist painter.

“Clint Eastwood’s speech tonight brought new meaning to the good, the bad and the ugly … but mostly just the bad and the ugly,” said Obama campaign spokesman Lis Smith.

“What the heck IS this?” tweeted Obama senior strategist David Axelrod. “That screaming you hear backstage is poor Clint, when they told him Mitt wants U.S. to stay in Afghanistan INDEFINITELY.”

The appearance of Eastwood was a highly anticipated surprise that the Romney campaign had refused to confirm to the media this week. A former mayor of Carmel, Calif., who has supported both Republican and Democrats in the past, the “Gran Torino” star officially threw his support behind the former Massachusetts governor earlier this month by appearing at a fundraiser for the candidate in Idaho.

A Romney campaign spokesperson defended Eastwood’s performance in this statement: “Judging an American icon like Clint Eastwood through a typical political lens doesn’t work. His ad-libbing was a break from all the political speeches, and the crowd enjoyed it. He rightly pointed out that 23 million Americans out of work or underemployed is a national disgrace and it’s time for a change.”

In a speech that was largely devoted to criticizing Obama, Eastwood briefly discussed Romney and his running mate Paul Ryan.

“Mr. Romney and Mr. Ryan are two guys that can come along. See, I never thought it was a good idea for attorneys to be president anyway. Because I think attorneys are so busy,” he said. “I think it’s maybe time, what do you think, for maybe a businsessman? How about that? A stellar businessman. … I think if you just kind of stepped aside and Mr. Romney can kind of take over — you could still use a plane. Though maybe a smaller one.”

Eastwood ended the speech by urging voters to elect Romney.

“We don’t have to be … masochists and vote for somebody that we don’t even really want in office just because they seem to be nice guys” or not so nice guys, he said, pointing to Obama’s latest TV ads.

The movie star then led the audience in repeating his most famous catchphrase:

“I’ll start it and you finish it. … Go ahead…”

The audience replied: “Make my day.”

The 82-year-old caused some stir in the political world this year when he appeared in a Chrysler commercial aired during the Super Bowl. In it, he spoke optimistically about America’s “comeback.” The TV spot was widely viewed as Eastwood’s support of the auto bailout, and sent the media buzzing about whether the actor was showing his support for Obama.

Chrysler denied that the ad was pro-Obama.

Correction: The original version of this story was corrected to state that Clint Eastwood did not tell President Barack Obama to “shut up,” but instead said that he would not be “shut up” from expressing his own political views.

CORRECTION: Corrected by: Vivyan Tran @ 08/30/2012 11:52 PM Correction: The original version of this story was corrected to state that Clint Eastwood did not tell President Barack Obama to “shut up,” but instead said that he would not be “shut up” from expressing his own political views.