Political Irony

Jon Stewart gives the best recap of Clint Eastwood’s speech at the Republican National Convention, and how his performance neatly sums up the whole convention. Sorry this is split into three videos, but they are relatively short and you should watch all three of them:

Eastwood’s performance also elicited a big response on twitter. Here are just a few of the hilarious tweets:

“This is a perfect representation of the campaign: an old white man arguing with an imaginary Barack Obama.” –Jamelle Bouie

“Clint Eastwood demonstrating that seniors may not be prepared to navigate a menu of subsidized private insurance plans.” –Matt Yglesias

“Clint Eastwood’s RNC speech was to imaginary Obama in an empty chair. I’m drafting a DNC speech to imaginary Romney in an empty factory.” –@GeorgeTakei

“Did I just get invisible credit for taking out Bin Laden?” –@InvisibleObama

“I still like Clint Eastwood. A crazy Republican talking to a chair is the least harm a crazy Republican has done in ages.” –Frank Conniff

“The voice telling Clint Eastwood to shut up wasn’t Invisible Obama, it was a producer in his earpiece.” –@misc

“This Clint Eastwood interrogates invisible Obama bit feels like the world’s worst SNL skit.” –@nathanrabin

“Eastwood representing libertarians around the country: pro freedom. anti war. and, more than likely, baked.” –@davidharsanyi

“Only possible Democratic response to Eastwood’s performance is to have William Shatner sing “Rocket Man” as their keynote.”–r@OrrChris

“Clint Eastwood on the phone with Obama now: “It all went according to plan, sir.” –@chrisrockoz

“BREAKING NEWS: Instant poll, InvisibleObama leads Romney by 12 points.” –@KQuark

“I hope they invite Clint Eastwood to speak at the DNC, too.” –@indecision

“Poor Clint. But that’s on Romney’s people. You don’t let an 82 year old alone with your remote control much less your nomination night.” –Will Durst

“Backstage somewhere, Clint Eastwood is yelling at people for almost sitting on Invisible Obama.” –@delrayser

“Biden has the intellect of the Democratic Party,” sneers a man who’s put together 1 complete sentence in the last 10 minutes. –@upworthy

‏”One nation! Under God! Invisible!” –@InvisibleObama

“Had dinner at Clint Eastwood’s house tonight. He never told me which empty chair Obama was sitting in so I ate standing up.æ –@AlanZweibel

“I am going to produce the Clint Eastwood talk show. Every week he talks to big name celebrities who are not there.” –@RealGilbert

“Clint Eastwood is still wondering who the mystery speaker at the Republican convention will be.” –@LOLGOP

“BREAKING: Clint Eastwood spotted in heated argument with luggage cart at Tampa International Airport” –@TheDailyEdge

“I don’t care what critics say, I loved Clint Eastwood’s audition for the sequel to A Beautiful Mind.” –@EugeneMirman

“20 years ago I wanted Clint Eastwood to make my day. Now I just want him to take his pills and be grateful he doesn’t need Medicare.” — Nancy Lee Grahn (of the General Hospital television show)

“I can’t believe I just watched Clint Eastwood turn into somebody’s DRUNK UNCLE HARRY on the stage of the GOP RNC. He humiliated himself.” — Star Jones (lawyer and TV personality)

And finally, Ruben Bolling (of Tom the Dancing Bug) posted this comic brilliantly likening Eastwood’s talk to Calvin and Hobbes, the comic strip where only Calvin can see his live tiger Hobbes:

UPDATE: Roger Ebert’s take on Clint Eastwood’s speech. He’s a bit kinder than most people.

UPDATE 2: In an interview with USA Today, Barack Obama has nothing but kind words for Clint Eastwood, saying:

He is a great actor, and an even better director. I think the last few movies that he’s made have been terrific.

Asked if he was offended by Eastwood’s talk, Obama stayed classy:

One thing about being president or running for president — if you’re easily offended, you should probably choose another profession.