Clint Eastwood shoots from the hip at GOP convention ? and gets some blowback

Fans that night may have expected to hear from ?Dirty Harry?: the cool, controlled enforcer, as deft with a quip as with a gun, effortlessly and eternally hip. Instead, they got something closer to Walt Kowalski, the grizzled old cuss of Eastwood?s 2008 ?Gran Torino?: raw, unpolished, a little angry and suddenly much older than you realized.

Senior campaign aides said Friday that the unscripted routine by the actor-director ? easily the biggest show-biz heavyweight to stand up for a GOP candidate since Frank Sinatra did it for Ronald Reagan ? was something of a surprise.

The Oscar winner, 82, spoke off the cuff, having discussed a few talking points with campaign advisers and sketched out some rough remarks but preparing nothing for the prompters. Organizers were comfortable with this setup: At the early August fundraiser in Idaho where Eastwood first came out publicly for Mitt Romney, he delivered suave impromptu remarks that had other guests raving.

Instead, Eastwood?s wacky conversation with the empty chair (standing in for President Obama ? and viewed by about 33 million people, according to Nielsen) became an instant Internet meme. His rambling style triggered snark about his health and his age. His old-timey lawyer jokes brought on a wave of triumphant fact-checking/rebuttal (Romney, like Obama, has a JD).

Inside the Tampa convention hall, the crowd roared with delight at Eastwood?s humor. But as Thursday night turned into Friday, Twitter and talking heads piled on the mockery, some claiming Eastwood had managed to upstage and undercut the Republican nominee?s acceptance speech. Ann Romney coolly deemed the actor?s performance ?unique? Friday on ?CBS This Morning.?

?I didn?t know it was coming,? she said with a nervous laugh.

Don?t look for Eastwood on the campaign trail this fall. His longtime manager said Friday that the star was traveling back from Florida and unavailable for interview requests or comments ? and that hewill not speak to the press at all until he hits the promotional circuit for his next movie, ?Trouble With the Curve,? opening Sept. 21.

When Eastwood gives his next interviews, manager Leonard Hirshan said,?he?s speaking about the picture, not everything else.?

On Friday, the Romney campaign expressed gratitude for the support of a beloved screen icon ? no matter how quirky his delivery.

?He went out and did what actors do sometimes: He did a little improv,? said Stuart Stevens, Romney?s chief strategist.

Convention producers warily eyed the clock as Eastwood ran over his allotted five minutes by six or seven minutes. And the empty-chair gimmick was a complete surprise.

?This was an idea, a moment that moved him, I would say, and he went with it,? Stevens said.

He said Romney, standing backstage, laughed appreciatively through Eastwood?s talk. And Stevens praised Eastwood for hitting key talking points: ?For him to go out there and to say that there?s a need to change presidents and that he supports Mitt Romney and talk about 23 million people out of work as he did and talk about when someone doesn?t do their job you need to change, that?s a powerful message.?

Source: http://feeds.washingtonpost.com/click.phdo?i=d324304a4fdcbc38f41c25cd5994f97b

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