What the Hell, Clint?

Clint Eastwood‘s surprise appearance last night at the Republican National Convention managed to upstage even Mitt Romney, but that wasn’t due to the iconic actor’s star power. Rather it was Eastwood’s long, rambling speech that stole the show, an episode so bizarre we’re almost reluctant to make fun of it.

For reasons unknown, Eastwood tossed aside a prepared speech and decided to ad-lib it. Bad idea. The veteran actor should know that improv is harder than it looks, and he isn’t exactly a graduate of The Groundlings. Though only scheduled for 5 minutes, Eastwood spoke for over 10, addressing an imaginary President Obama in an empty chair, whom he imagined to be hurling obscenities, and veering wildly from topic to topic without making much sense.

The Romney campaign responded to the disaster by saying, “You can’t look at him at through the same political lens that you would other politicians. He’s Clint Eastwood.”

Anyhow, watch and cringe.