Romney Aides take cover.

[elleng]

Clint Eastwood’s rambling and off-color endorsement of Mitt Romney on Thursday seemed to startle and unsettle even the candidate’s own top aides, several of whom made a point of distancing themselves from the decision to put him onstage without a polished script.

“Not me,” said an exasperated-looking senior adviser, when asked who was responsible for Mr. Eastwood’s speech. In late-night interviews, aides variously called the speech “strange” and “weird.” One described it as “theater of the absurd.”

Finger-pointing quickly ensued, suggesting real displeasure and even confusion over the handling of Mr. Eastwood’s performance, which was kept secret until the last minute.

A senior Republican involved in convention planning said that Mr. Eastwood’s appearance was cleared by at least two of Mr. Romney’s top advisers, Russ Schriefer and Stuart Stevens. This person said that there had been no rehearsal, to the surprise of the rest of the campaign team.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/01/us/politics/romney-aides-scratch-their-heads-over-eastwoods-speech.html?hp

[rurallib]

1. etch-a-sketches to the rescue

can they work their magic once more?

[Drale]

2. Bet at some point they try and put the blame on

the President. They blame him for everything else, why not this as well?

[LiberalFighter]

6. You mean the empty chair?

Burn the chair. Throw it in the river. The chair made Clint Eastwood do it.

[progressivebydesign]

3. Have you noticed the media (like yahoo news) have largely ignored Clint's debacle?

Yahoo News did say it was "fantastic!!!" but otherwise, the news sites are ignoring that and focusing on Romney and his "tons of jobs!!" dumbasses.

[CTyankee]

9. Too late! If you google empty chair or Dali empty chair you get a flood of Clint Eastwood

shots and the empty chair. This thing has gone viral and no one can stop it. Too bad the MSM hasn't picked it up...it's "out there" and will be in social media, twitter and everything else for a nice, LONG time...heh...

what a great turn of events!

[burnsei sensei]

4. Priceless!

One described it as “theater of the absurd.”

That phrase could be used to describe the entire event, the party, its policies and its aspirations.
Mr. Eastwood, thank you.

[alcibiades_mystery]

5. This is Sarah Palin's legacy

What the Romney advisors desperately wanted was a Sarah Palin like moment - this "gritty" attack speech that would boost them in the polls 7 points. They wanted a "pitbull-hockey mom-lipstick" moment, a rallying cry. And they wanted all that because they are still completely snowed by what they think the effects of Sarah Palin's speech was last time. Deep in the conservative heart is this really mangled and silly notion that Palin won them the election were it not for the economic collapse of October 2008, and McCain's ham-handed response to it. They really believe this. So they recruit a "tough guy" to do the tough guy / Sarah Palin act. That it backfires atrociously should be no surprise. This is also the reason that the Freepers are befuddled and still loving it, despite its objective weirdness. Here's the secret: Sarah Palin's speech in 2008 perhaps solidified a base, but it almost certainly worsened McCain's chances for election. The GOPers mistook a fairly typical convention bounce for some kind of smashing success. So they called Eastwood. Yeah, sure, beat up on Obama by talking to a chair. Sounds great! Yeah, have him curse at you! YEAH! This'll be awesome! It was as grave a political miscalculation as putting that imbecile from Wasilla on a national ticket.

[TlalocW]

7. And it was, in a way, a Sarah Palin moment

The moments we came to know after the convention when it became obvious how much of an empty suit she is.

Someone else made this point, and I'm tying it back to 2008 - the GOP has a real problem with vetting these days. Sarah Palin obviously. It's apparent that the Romney people were not ready for the blowback on Ryan, and finally, it's been known right at the beginning of the RNC that Eastwood was going to be their surprise speaker. Did no one think to sit down and vet his speech? "Uh, talking to an empty chair, Mister Eastwood? That's kind of grade-school shit."

Now that I think about it, it goes back even further - at least to 1996 - that the republicans have a, "Just trust me," attitude with the public that mixes with their sense of entitlement (It's Bob Dole's turn to be president! Where's the outrage!). It's like because they don't think they need to explain things to us maybe that carries over when they deal with each other. "Oh, c'mon! it's Clint 'Mother-Effing' Eastwood. I trust him to make a great speech!"

TlalocW

[janx]

8. After witnessing that performance (or whatever it was), they were surprised

to learn that it was unrehearsed?!

"This person said that there had been no rehearsal, to the surprise of the rest of the campaign team. "


Eastwood had no idea what he was doing, and it was painfully obvious.

[Jennicut]

10. Isn't this Mitten's ultimate responsibility?

He was the guy at the top of the ticket, after all.

I bet they will blame Invisible Obama, so sneaky you never even saw him at the RNC.