RNC 2012: Old man shouts at empty chair

I watched way too much of the RNC last night. For a while I didn't think I was going to make it to Rmoney's speech. The parade of Mormons with their endless testimonials to "our wonderful, kindly savior Mitt" was putting me to sleep. Then I woke up at the end to a horrible nightmare. A doddering Clint Eastwood arguing with an empty chair. Empath that I am, I found it too painful to watch all at once. Literally had to leave the room. Even today, it's all I can think about. Can't get the tragic image out of my head.

If you wisely skipped the festivities of closing night, MoJo has the transcript and abbreviated video. Or if you can bear to watch the whole Eastwood debacle:



I think Brian Lehrer had the best summation on the twitter machine.

Ha! RT @jbouie "This is a perfect representation of the campaign: an old white man arguing with an imaginary Barack Obama." BL

Of course, within seconds there were several competing Invisible Obama/Empty Chair accounts opened on twitter and #Eastwooding became an instant internet meme.

Many more interpretations at the last two links.

Just because I can't stop laughing doesn't mean I'm not very sad for poor old Clint. The saddest part is the empty chair won the argument.

Also, I'd note in passing that the blogging delegates I've seen have mostly studiously ignored it or reported that he wowed the crowd. Which says a lot about the crowd... But you already knew that.

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