# Clint Eastwood voting for Romney **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [August 5, 2012, 12:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clint-eastwood-voting-for-romney/630469 "2012-08-05T00:49:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 8
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2012, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clint-eastwood-voting-for-romney/630469/141 "2012-08-31T18:40:13Z")
> [@NineLineMan](#): > > And odd since Romney is a lawyer. This was one weird bit from the speech that hasn’t gotten the attention it deserves, I think. First off, Eastwood said maybe we should stop electing attorneys. Both Obama and Romney have law degrees. I’m not sure either one was ever a practiging attorney, but that might be a nitpick. Second and more importantly, he said that instead of lawyers maybe voters should elect a businessman. This exact same argument was made in favor of George W. Bush, and we know that was a disaster fiscally and in every other sense. ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2012, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clint-eastwood-voting-for-romney/630469/142 "2012-08-31T18:47:16Z")
In all cases you cite, the degrees were from Harvard. Says something, not sure what. ---
**Author:** ![bup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6bbea6/32.png) [@bup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bup)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2012, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clint-eastwood-voting-for-romney/630469/143 "2012-08-31T18:49:59Z")
> [@Marley23](#): > > Second and more importantly, he said that instead of lawyers maybe voters should elect a businessman. This exact same argument was made in favor of George W. Bush, and we know that was a disaster fiscally and in every other sense. He meant a \*successful \*businessman, one assumes. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2012, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clint-eastwood-voting-for-romney/630469/144 "2012-08-31T18:52:07Z")
> [@bup](#): > > He meant a \*successful \*businessman, one assumes. I think he actually went back and emphasized “brilliant businessman” or something like that. But despite some bankruptcies, people who were touting Bush’s candidacy said he’d been very successful in business, too, and Cheney had been successful for Halliburton as its CEO (and arguably remained so as VP!). So it really is the same argument. ---
**Author:** ![Hippy\_Hollow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hippy_hollow/32/4841_2.png) [@Hippy\_Hollow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hippy_Hollow)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2012, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clint-eastwood-voting-for-romney/630469/145 "2012-08-31T19:13:40Z")
Is Clint really a shadow Democrat operative? That’s how he was acting. ---
**Author:** ![Andiethewestie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ba9def/32.png) [@Andiethewestie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andiethewestie)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2012, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clint-eastwood-voting-for-romney/630469/146 "2012-08-31T19:29:35Z")
> [@Hippy\_Hollow](#): > > Is Clint really a shadow Democrat operative? That’s how he was acting. Apparently Clint sees himself more as an old school Eisenhower Republican, but he’s pretty much Libertarian on social issues, so some of the spew coming out of the convention would have to at least make him hold his nose. Would it be too far off to speculate maybe some of Romney’s crew gave Clint talking points and he told them to fuck off, tossed the script and blew up ranting to the invisible President? It just feels like he was pissed, and not necessarily at Obama. I don’t know, but how frosty is it in the Romney camp today? Mitt’s going houseclean that’s for sure. ---
**Author:** ![Sam\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Sam\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_Stone)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2012, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clint-eastwood-voting-for-romney/630469/147 "2012-08-31T19:32:44Z")
> [@Enderw24](#): > > George Bush wasn’t invited to the RNC > Sarah Palin wasn’t invited to the RNC > Dick Cheney wasn’t invited to the RNC > John McCain was invited as a Wal-Mart greeter. > > I think this puts into perspective what the Republican Party thinks about its past leaders. Isn’t that a GOOD thing? I’ve been saying for years that Bush wasn’t popular with Republicans precisely because they saw him as just another big-spending, big-government guy. Which he was. And I’m guessing you’re no fan of any of the above, so why is it bad that the Republicans are dumping them? > [@](#): > > Frankly, I think that if Reagan were alive and lucid today he wouldn’t have been invited because no one in the RNC would have been comfortable with what he’d have to say about the Republican Party of 2012. Oh, that’s just ridiculous. It’s a Democratic talking point that Reagan wouldn’t be welcome in today’s Republican party, or that he wouldn’t want to be in it. That’s just not true. Go back and re-watch his ‘a time for choosing’ speech that put him in the spotlight in 1964. Go listen to some of his radio addresses that he wrote himself. Reagan was a libertarian-oriented Republican by temperament. He could (and did) quote extensively from Hayek, Bastiat, and Friedman. He referenced the founding fathers regularly. If he were around today, he’d probably be the leader of the Tea Party. > [@Ronald Reagan](#): > > If you analyze it I believe the very heart and soul of conservatism is libertarianism. I think conservatism is really a misnomer just as liberalism is a misnomer for the liberals — if we were back in the days of the Revolution, so-called conservatives today would be the Liberals and the liberals would be the Tories. The basis of conservatism is a desire for less government interference or less centralized authority or more individual freedom and this is a pretty general description also of what libertarianism is. And while this is off-topic, while looking up that quote I found this one, from 1989: > [@Ronald Reagan](#): > > Information is the oxygen of the modern age. It seeps through the walls topped by barbed wire, it wafts across the electrified borders. … The Goliath of totalitarianism will be brought down by the David of the microchip. Not a bad insight from 23 years ago. ---
**Author:** ![Hentor\_the\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/8edcca/32.png) [@Hentor\_the\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hentor_the_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2012, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clint-eastwood-voting-for-romney/630469/148 "2012-08-31T19:37:47Z")
Plenty of conservatives have observed that Reagan would not fit in the current Republican party. It’s more than just a liberal talking point. ---
**Author:** ![Dag\_Otto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/439d5e/32.png) [@Dag\_Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dag_Otto)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2012, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clint-eastwood-voting-for-romney/630469/149 "2012-08-31T19:39:45Z")
In other news, [Dictionary.com](http://Dictionary.com) servers went down last night in a Denial of Service attack when they were overloaded with requests for the definition of ‘bifurcate’. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2012, 7:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clint-eastwood-voting-for-romney/630469/150 "2012-08-31T19:48:11Z")
> [@Marley23](#): > > This was one weird bit from the speech that hasn’t gotten the attention it deserves, I think. First off, Eastwood said maybe we should stop electing attorneys. Both Obama and Romney have law degrees. I’m not sure either one was ever a practiging attorney, but that might be a nitpick. Mitt was admitted to the [Michigan bar](http://www.michbar.org/memberdirectory/detail.cfm?PID=40351), so by definition he was a practicing attorney for at least a short time even though he didn’t actually practice law. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2012, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clint-eastwood-voting-for-romney/630469/151 "2012-08-31T19:57:48Z")
> [@Sam\_Stone](#): > > …Not a bad insight from 23 years ago. So, there he was, putting the finishing touches on his definitive paper on _Kant, Hegel, and the Existential Essence of the Dialectic_ when he was struck by this thought, which he jotted down to fit into his next speech. Canadians. Is it the water? ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2012, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clint-eastwood-voting-for-romney/630469/152 "2012-08-31T19:59:50Z")
> [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](#): > > Mitt was admitted to the [Michigan bar](http://www.michbar.org/memberdirectory/detail.cfm?PID=40351), so by definition he was a practicing attorney for at least a short time even though he didn’t actually practice law. Thank you. As usual, Romney found a way to be both. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2012, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clint-eastwood-voting-for-romney/630469/153 "2012-08-31T20:00:08Z")
> [@Jas09](#): > > And Mia Love is going to get trounced in November, she’s losing by 17 in the latest polls - rising star my ass. > > But none of that really matters. Obviously the GOP is _trying_ to reach out to minorities. They have no choice. Romney needs 60%+ of the white vote this year to win, and it’s going to get even worse in the future if they don’t get their non-white vote share up above 30%. They’re not being helped by people like Lindsey Graham, whose latest gaffe was along the lines of “We’re not generating enough angry white guys to stay in business for the long term” ([current thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=663966)). I’m sure that won’t further alienate women or people of color. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2012, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clint-eastwood-voting-for-romney/630469/154 "2012-08-31T20:25:21Z")
That wasn’t a gaffe at all. He said they need a more diverse base of support, and he’s right- they do. Nikki Haley and Marco Rubio to the side, the Republican Party is a party of older white men and the country is getting more and more diverse. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2012, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clint-eastwood-voting-for-romney/630469/155 "2012-08-31T20:50:46Z")
> [@Marley23](#): > > That wasn’t a gaffe at all. He said they need a more diverse base of support, and he’s right- they do. Nikki Haley and Marco Rubio to the side, the Republican Party is a party of older white men and the country is getting more and more diverse. Ah, just badly worded and then parsed to show it in the worst light possible then. I had to reread it in context a couple of times to see what he was trying to say. I retract my previous comment. ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2012, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clint-eastwood-voting-for-romney/630469/156 "2012-08-31T21:01:15Z")
> [@Chefguy](#): > > Just saw on the news that Eastwood is endorsing Romney. Last dollar he gets from me, which is no big loss for either of us. Why? It’s not like he endorsed barbecuing live puppies. (Okay, I hate dogs; let’s say live kittens.) I see no reason why Clint Eastwood or any artist needs to agree with my politics. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2012, 9:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clint-eastwood-voting-for-romney/630469/157 "2012-08-31T21:05:20Z")
From your good friends at _ThinkProgres_s, regarding Romnulan reaction to the speech: [http://thinkprogress.org/election/2012/08/31/786101/romney-campaign-embraces-eastwoods-speech-classic-descriptive-spoke-from-the-heart/](http://thinkprogress.org/election/2012/08/31/786101/romney-campaign-embraces-eastwoods-speech-classic-descriptive-spoke-from-the-heart/) \*\*Romney Campaign Embraces Eastwood’s Speech: ‘Classic,’ ‘Descriptive,’ ‘Spoke From The Heart’ \*\* > [@](#): > > The Romney campaign is defending Clint Eastwood’s Thursday night’s baffling endorsement of the one-time Massachusetts governor at the Republican National Convention, insisting that the actor “spoke from the heart with a classic improv sketch which everyone at the convention loved.”… “Classic improv”. Yes. Quite. Just so. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2012, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clint-eastwood-voting-for-romney/630469/158 "2012-08-31T21:18:50Z")
That’s pretty good. It’s not like they can come out and say “Mitt went white as a ghost as soon as Clint started rambling and halfway through the speech he begged Heavenly Father to either kill the microphone or make Clint wander off the stage before it got any worse.” Anne Romney was quoted as saying “he’s a unique guy and he did a unique thing,” which I think we’d all have to agree is a triumph of euphemism. I’m not sure if she added “Bless his heart.” ---
**Author:** ![Happy\_Lendervedder](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/happy_lendervedder/32/8488_2.png) [@Happy\_Lendervedder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Happy_Lendervedder)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2012, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clint-eastwood-voting-for-romney/630469/159 "2012-08-31T21:20:20Z")
So let me get this straight: They put an octogenarian, who’s not particularly known for his improvisational skills, on prime time television, during the final hour of their nationally-televised convention, leading up to the introduction of the man they’ve just nominated to be president (a nominee who’s been consistently behind in most national polls since Day 1), had this old man do an unscripted sketch-- again, on national television during what’s probably the most-watched night of their convention-- where he yelled random, off-message things at a chair for 10 minutes…and they’re _happy with the results_?!? I’ll never understand Republicans. And I think I’m getting more and more convinced the Romney people have no damn clue what they’re doing and will just be happy when this whole debacle is finally over in November. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2012, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clint-eastwood-voting-for-romney/630469/160 "2012-08-31T21:25:31Z")
They’re not happy. They’re just not acknowledging that it was a trainwreck because it’s politics and they have to put the best face on it. It’s not like it’s death for the campaign, but it was very bad timing since this was supposed to be Romney’s big speech to the public. If they really were OK with letting Eastwood give a spontaneous address to a huge convention of people and a TV audience when he’s not used to doing either, that was really dumb. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clint-eastwood-voting-for-romney/630469.md?page=7) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clint-eastwood-voting-for-romney/630469.md?page=9)