The results are in, and according to a MSNBC poll. Clint Eastwood’s speech at the 2012 Republican National Convention (RNC) was both confusing and offensive.
Eastwood was featured as a surprise guest at the RNC in Tampa. His appearance was surprising but more surprising was what he said.
Although there was a teleprompter set for Eastwood, there were times he did go off course and inserted other statements.
“I know what you are thinking. You are thinking, what’s a movie tradesman doing out here? You know they are all left wingers out there, left of Lenin. At least that is what people think. That is not really the case,” said Eastwood. “There are a lot of conservative people, a lot of moderate people, Republicans, Democrats, in Hollywood. It is just that the conservative people by the nature of the word itself play closer to the vest. They do not go around hot dogging it.”
He added, "So I - so I've got Mr. Obama sitting here. And he's - I was going to ask him a couple of questions."
That's when the speech began to tumble, or start to entertain, pending on who you ask.
Eastwood spoke to an empty chair, meant to represent President Barack Obama and asked him questions.
"So, Mr. President, how do you handle promises that you have made when you were running for election, and how do you handle them? I mean, what do you say to people? Do you just - you know - I know - people were wondering - you don't - handle that OK," said Eastwood.
The Romney campaign wasted no time in issuing a statement about Eastwood.
"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."
Obama would tweet a smart-witted response on Twitter with a photo and caption stating "This seat's taken."
These are some YouTube comments found with theRNC Eastwood video:
Zebry13: Welp, this helped Obama secure my vote.
TedVoron: The teleprompter was there for OBAMA THE CHAIR.
GrogMyzer: Sad to see such a great actor melt down like this... It's so sad. I guess this is what happens when ridiculous concepts come to a party.
AcidReg: I don't care that Clint is Republican. Its really sad when someone is not properly prepare. Clint just looks bizarre. Damn RNC couldn't you give Clint at least a story treatment or something? Sad sad sad.
RonaldJonhson86: Did Clint even now where he was or who he is? A really bad skit, time for him to just fade into the sunset!
TakeDetour: Speaking at the convention was uncharacteristic for Clint. He must be really worried about the next 4 years.
14PoorJane: Worst performance ever by Eastwood! Really low class. No problem with him scripting himself a bumbling monologue making criticisms,, but scripting the President as a vulgar man was well beneath the standard I would have expected of Clint. I lost respect for him last night.
Tlipira8: Fantastic, God bless Clint Eastwood
The web also capitalized on Eastwood's performance with a meme, titled Eastwooding. The meme features people point at an empty seat, as if having a conversation with someone. One location for these memes was on Facebook.
These are some of the memes: