Clint Eastwood, 82, speaking at the Republican National Convention, Aug. 30, 2012.
There’s a zone in which people getting up in years lose the inner guide that causes most adults to keep their remarks within certain bounds of appropriateness for time, place, who is being talked about and who’s listening — a sad eventuality demonstrated spectacularly by Clint Eastwood at the GOP convention in Tampa last night.
As a special guest speaker, Eastwood’s schtick of choice was to bitch and moan, disrespectfully and crudely, to an empty chair on which the audience was supposed to imagine President Barack Obama was sitting.
Eastwood’s complaints included the Obama administration’s aborted plan to try Guantanamo prisoners in New York City and the president’s decision to complete withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan in 2014.
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He attacked Obama for, of all things, riding in Air Force One. “You could still use a plane,” he said, “Not that big gas guzzler you are going around to colleges and talking about student loans and stuff like that.”
“I can’t do that to myself,” Eastwood said several times to the empty chair next to him, pretending, apparently, that the president was telling Eastwood to go f*** himself.
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That kind of thing might be OK for a private gathering of like-minded cronies. At an event viewed by a mixed audience of millions — including schoolchildren encouraged to watch by their teachers — Eastwood’s lame attempt at caustic humor was appallingly out of place.
Criticizing Obama’s decisions and accomplishments, or lack thereof, was to be expected. Putting foul language in the president’s mouth was not. It was demeaning, insulting and completely uncalled for to Obama personally. It was also disrespectful to the office Obama holds.
After his tasteless turn on stage, event managers claimed they had no idea what Eastwood was going to do. We give as much credence to that as we do to most of what comes out of Republicans’ mouths any more.
We think Romney’s crew let their candidate and Eastwood himself down by allowing this superb actor, director and producer, so long an icon of American filmmaking, to make a fool of himself in front of the nation.
We’d prefer to remember Eastwood as his unforgettable character, police Inspector Harry Callahan, than as a punk who thinks anything goes when he’s badmouthing a president he disagrees with.
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She walks around like she’s some sort of Rainbow Brite Care Bear or something, but really she’s an evil monster.”
Acrimony, lawsuits mark Olbermann-Current TV split
Today, Current TV co-founders Al Gore and Joel Hyatt responded with a lawsuit of their own, citing Olbermann for repeatedly failing to show up for work and being uncooperative in various ways. The network’s lawsuit asks for a ruling that Olbermann is owed nothing and seeks unspecified damages.
The acrimonious breakup comes about 14 months after Olbermann abruptly left MSNBC on less than cordial terms. He reportedly had a five-year, $50 million contract with Current.
Eliot Spitzer’s Viewpoint program now runs in the Countdown time slot.
It takes two: We ‘re sure there’s plenty of blame to go around on both sides of this ugly, unfortunate dispute. We expect it will do nothing but harm to Olbermann and to Current no matter which side prevails in court.
Olbermann’s complaint that Current failed to provide an adequate studio and equipment for a first-rate news commentary program rings true. But so do the network’s complaints about Olbermann being aloof, erratic and temperamental.
We didn’t watch the show but a few times in recent weeks because, frankly, it wasn’t very good. And, we got tired of seeing Olbermann looking like this.
Considering how much it apparently invested in bringing Olbermann on board, Current should have provided him with a decent studio, proper equipment and capable behind-the-camera technicians and editorial staff, right from the start.
For his part, Olbermann should’ve known he was going to a diamond-in-the-rough operation, one that would require lots of dedicated effort on his part to bring to a shine. That’s a job for a can-do leader, not a can-sue prima donna.
So now, during an especially important presidential election year, one of the strongest voices in the comparatively small universe of progressive media stars will do his talking about this blowup with another network instead of about crucially important issues, events and political figures.
As Bill Bendix used to say in his 1950′s sitcom, The Life of Riley, “What a revoltin’ development this is.”
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