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鈥檚 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 鈥渞esponse.鈥� "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鈥檚 Howard Kurtz tweeted that 鈥淐lint's empty chair act weirdest convention moment I have ever seen.鈥�
On the floor, most delegates seemed so overcome by his star power 鈥� and the chance to finish his famous 鈥渕ake my day鈥� line for him 鈥� that they didn鈥檛 care, but the speech didn鈥檛 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 鈥淚nvisible Obama鈥� Twitter account.
