In defense of Clint

Okay, I realize I believe some things that are far from majority opinion. For instance, like maybe 10 or 11 other people in the world, I think JFK was shot by a lone gunman. I think Elektra was a great movie. (Hey, Jennifer Garner starred it so how could it be otherwise?)

And I actually liked Clint Eastwood's speech at the Republican Convention on Thursday.

His line on the Afghanistan War is the best we're likely to hear in either convention: "We didn’t check with the Russians to see how did it — they did there for 10 years."

I mean, he was one of many old white guys there, but he actually came across as likable and even funny. I'm inclined to think his dingie-ness was deliberate; the guy still is a great actor, after all.

And his latest movie, Trouble with the Curve is about a old guy who's beginning to lose it a bit:

He's definitely a Republican but often says things that would have probably gotten him stoned - ai in people throwing rocks at him - if he had said them at the convention, such as expressing his admiration for current CA Gov. Jerry Brown.

But the crowd cheered at his Afghanistan War line, so who knows? Maybe they weren't even listening.

Marcy Wheeler (Did Clint Get Cold Feet? Emptywheel 08/31/2012) also picked up on this un-Republican-sounding segment from his speech:

I would just like to say something, ladies and gentlemen. Something that I think is very important. It is that, you, we — we own this country.

(APPLAUSE)

We—we own it. It is not you owning it, and not politicians owning it. Politicians are employees of ours.

(APPLAUSE)

And—so—they are just going to come around and beg for votes every few years. It is the same old deal. But I just think it is important that you realize that you’re the best in the world. Whether you are a Democrat or Republican or whether you’re libertarian or whatever, you are the best. And we should not ever forget that. And when somebody does not do the job, we got to let them go.

Marcy's own reading of that:

And while much of what Clint said was pitch perfect for Mitt’s campaign–the focus on jobs, Romney as a quote unquote stellar businessman, the support for Gitmo–ultimately this was a batty old man demanding that citizens get their country back again, a view profoundly at odds with the idea of that party thrown by the huge corporations and billionaires that own Mitt’s campaign and are trying to buy our government.

Cenk Uygur of The Young Turks had a critical but interesting take on it, Clint Eastwood Speech, Invisible Obama 08/31/2012:

Tags: 2012 election, afghanistan war, clint eastwood