National Empty Chair Day

My Empty Chair

Today (Monday) was National Empty Chair Day, in honor of Clint Eastwood’s performance at the Republican National Convention last Thursday.  We saw it live, and I thought it was hilarious. It was clearly not a speech, but a performance.

However many on the left were unable to discern the difference. They jumped to the conclusion that this man, who is 82, was a witless, rambling old fool who’d lost his marbles to age. So sad. Poor old Clint.

Right.

He’s an ACTOR! Actors act like people they are not.

Eastwood has directed 8 movies in the last five years, is quite articulate when seen in interviews and was coolly, competently, persuasive in that Superbowl ad he did for Chrysler last winter (It’s Half Time in America). In addition, he ad libbed his entire performance in front of a huge crowd and much of the nation. It was the empty chair, in which sat an invisible President Obama, that required the teleprompter.

At first, I’ll admit, what he was doing seemed strange and even mildly alarming. Until he talked to the chair. And then repeated or replied to what its invisible occupant was saying as well.

I’ve seen sketches like this before, and in fact, I think it was Mark Steyn that mentioned the similarity to an old Bob Newhart bit, where he seems befuddled as he talks to an invisible cohort.  But in between Eastwood’s bouts of apparent befuddlement he let loose some real zingers.

“We own this country… Politicians are employees of ours….   They’re just going to come around and beg for votes every few years.”

“When somebody does not do the job, we’ve got to let him go.”

Anyway, the chair was such a hit, some folks decided to make this year’s Labor Day Holiday National Empty Chair Day. I first heard of it on Drudge, Power Line and Legal Insurrection, the latter suggesting people put out their empty chair, take a picture of it and then send them the photo. They got 100 photos the first night and the next day, between a continuing avalanche of photos and visitors from Drudge and Instanpundit, their server crashed.

So there was as LOT of interest in the empty chair. You can see some more pictures of empty chairs and accompanying decorations here at The Right Scoop.

3 thoughts on “National Empty Chair Day

  1. Rebecca LuElla Miller

    Thank you! I’m tired of hearing about the “speech.” It was a performance, and anyone paying attention would have easily been able to figure that out.

    Worst part of it was that the media latched onto it and ignored things like Condoleezza Rice’s outstanding speech, the Olympians that crowded onto the stage to give testimony to Mr. Romney’s leadership when he headed up the US Olympic committee for the Utah winter games, the self-described liberal Democrat who served in Mr. Romney’s cabinet and praised him for his leadership and policy toward women, and of course Marco Rubio’s impressive speech. None of that was news-worthy, I guess!

    Becky

    Reply
    1. karenhancock

      Well, that’s what the media does best, now, isn’t it? Ignore the important stuff to focus on the distractions?

      Though I have to admit I think that the Eastwood thing has probably done a lot to make people think where other more conventional speeches wouldn’t have.

      Reply
  2. Rebecca LuElla Miller

    That’s possible. Some of the others, though, were extremely thought provoking. I wish I had transcripts so I could think more about what they said. But Mr. Eastwood accomplished what the media loves–he gave them sound bites and a reason to discount what he said.

    Becky

    Reply

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