I
don't think Wondering has ever published a full text of someone on this blog.
But frankly we walked away thinking this was the lead speech for Thursday nights
closing argument for Mitt Romney. Others did too. Clint Eastwood is 82.
Bravo!
EASTWOOD: Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you very
much. Save a little for Mitt.
(APPLAUSE)
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.
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.
So -- but they are there, believe me, they are there. I
just think, in fact, some of them around town, I saw John Voigt, a lot of people
around.
(APPLAUSE)
John’s here, an academy award winner. A terrific guy.
These people are all like-minded, like all of
us.
So I -- so I’ve got Mr. Obama sitting here. And he’s -- I
was going to ask him a couple of questions. But -- you know about -- I remember
three and a half years ago, when Mr. Obama won the election. And though I was
not a big supporter, I was watching that night when he was having that thing and
they were talking about hope and change and they were talking about, yes we can,
and it was dark outdoors, and it was nice, and people were lighting
candles.
They were saying, I just thought, this was great.
Everybody is trying, Oprah was
crying.
(LAUGHTER)
EASTWOOD: I was even crying. And then finally -- and I
haven’t cried that hard since I found out that there is 23 million unemployed
people in this country.
(APPLAUSE)
Now that is something to cry for because that is a
disgrace, a national disgrace, and we haven’t done enough, obviously -- this
administration hasn’t done enough to cure that. Whenever interest they have is
not strong enough, and I think possibly now it may be time for somebody else to
come along and solve the problem.
(APPLAUSE)
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. Well, I
know even people in your own party were very disappointed when you didn’t close
Gitmo. And I thought, well closing Gitmo -- why close that, we spent so much
money on it. But, I thought maybe as an excuse -- what do you mean shut
up?
(LAUGHTER)
OK, I thought maybe it was just because somebody had the
stupid idea of trying terrorists in downtown New York
City.
(APPLAUSE)
I’ve got to to hand it to you. I have to give credit
where credit is due. You did finally overrule that finally. And that’s -- now we
are moving onward. I know you were against the war in Iraq, and that’s okay. But
you thought the war in Afghanistan was OK. You know, I mean -- you thought that
was something worth doing. We didn’t check with the Russians to see how did it
-- they did there for 10 years.
But we did it, and it is something to be thought about,
and I think that, when we get to maybe -- I think you’ve mentioned something
about having a target date for bringing everybody home. You gave that target
date, and I think Mr. Romney asked the only sensible question, you know, he
says, “Why are you giving the date out now? Why don’t you just bring them home
tomorrow morning?”
And I thought -- I thought, yeah -- I am not going to
shut up, it is my turn.
(LAUGHTER)
So anyway, we’re going to have -- we’re going to have to
have a little chat about that. And then, I just wondered, all these promises --
I wondered about when the -- what do you want me to tell Romney? I can’t tell
him to do that. I can’t tell him to do that to
himself.
(APPLAUSE)
You’re crazy, you’re absolutely crazy. You’re getting as
bad as Biden.
(APPLAUSE)
Of course we all now Biden is the intellect of the
Democratic party.
(LAUGHTER)
Kind of a grin with a body behind
it.
(LAUGHTER)
But I just think that there is so much to be done, and I
think that Mr. Romney and Mr. Ryan are two guys that can come along. See, I
never thought it was a good idea for attorneys to the president,
anyway.
(APPLAUSE)
I think attorneys are so busy -- you know they’re always
taught to argue everything, and always weight everything -- weigh both
sides.
They are always devil’s advocating this and bifurcating
this and bifurcating that. You know all that stuff. But, I think it is maybe
time -- what do you think -- for maybe a businessman. How about
that?
(APPLAUSE)
A stellar businessman. Quote, unquote, “a stellar
businessman.”
And I think it’s that time. And I think if you just step
aside and Mr. Romney can kind of take over. You can maybe still use a
plane.
(APPLAUSE)
Though maybe a smaller one. Not that big gas guzzler you
are going around to colleges and talking about student loans and stuff like
that.
(APPLAUSE)
You are an -- an ecological man. Why would you want to
drive that around?
OK, well anyway. All right, I’m sorry. I can’t do that to
myself either.
(APPLAUSE)
I would just like to say something, ladies and gentlemen.
Something that I think is very important. It is that, you, we -- we own this
country.
(APPLAUSE)
We -- we own it. It is not you owning it, and not
politicians owning it. Politicians are employees of
ours.
(APPLAUSE)
And -- so -- they are just going to come around and beg
for votes every few years. It is the same old deal. But I just think it is
important that you realize , that you’re the best in the world. Whether you are
a Democrat or Republican or whether you’re libertarian or whatever, you are the
best. And we should not ever forget that. And when somebody does not do the job,
we got to let them go.
(APPLAUSE)
Okay, just remember that. And I’m speaking out for
everybody out there. It doesn’t hurt, we don’t have to
be
(AUDIENCE MEMBER):
(inaudible)
(LAUGHTER)
I do not say that word anymore. Well, maybe one last
time.
(LAUGHTER)
We don’t have to be -- what I’m saying, we do not have to
be metal (ph) masochists and vote for somebody that we don’t really even want in
office just because they seem to be nice guys or maybe not so nice guys, if you
look at some of the recent ads going out there, I don’t
know.
(APPLAUSE)
But OK. You want to make my
day?
(APPLAUSE)
All right. I started, you finish it. Go
ahead.
AUDIENCE: Make my
day!
EASTWOOD: Thank you. Thank you very
much.
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