'Go ahead, Vet my day.' 'A fistful of incoherence.' 'High slurs rambler.' 'Every which way and loose.'
Clint Eastwood, the 82-year-old movie star and director, inspired what seemed like enthusiasm inside the Republican National Convention's Tampa Bay Times Forum—and disbelief outside it and on Twitter.
Eastwood seemed to speak without notes, without a Tele-Prom-Ter and without a clue of what he wanted to say. He shadow-boxed with Obama in a bizarre piece of stagecraft that involved an empty chair. He rambled about how America needed a businessman in charge. He came very close to using the f-word, making several feints at it. And he ran some ongoing gag about how he'd talk as long as he wanted to.
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The weirdness seemed to discomfit the audience, but also charged them with adrenaline. Weirdness, maybe, was just what this convention needed—a reminder that, however closely choreographed, the conventions are still live events.
When Eastwood finally made it off stage—as Twitter called for a hook or a gong to hasten his exit—it seemed he'd gone over time.
Commenters initially called it a catastrophe for Romney. But for decades voters have complained that there's no spontaneity at the conventions. Eastwood brought the spontaneity, with the crazy. Who vetted his speech—or failed to? Who cares? He woke up a flagging crowd just in time for Romney's acceptance speech.
He may have been incoherent. But live TV is set up exactly for the 'Good, the Bad and the Spacey'. And Eastwood knows how to win attention 'Every Which You Can'.
Story by Virginia Heffernan, Yahoo! News
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