A DODDERING OLD COOT….
(…crazy as an old fox…)

Last week’s performance by Clint Eastwood at the grand finale of the GOP’s convention in Tampa…literally brought the house down.

After several days of the usual party hoopla and blather, not signifying much, with everyone properly following the tightly scripted and organized extravaganza, the campaign managers had planned to cap things off with a nice bit of cachet,  by having a much admired and respected Hollywood personality come out and tamely mouth a few pleasantries and platitudes about how their choice of nominee, Governor Romney, was the best that America can be… introduce him to the party faithful…for acclamation….then, quietly get the hell out of their way…while they wrapped everything up with a big red, white, and blue ribbon. That was the plan.

But what those campaign managing wiseasses totally overlooked and seriously miscalculated in this instance is that Mr. Eastwood has never been known to be “tame” about anything (much less about things political), is a highly skilled and great actor, not to mention director as well; and, having reached the category of geriatric T-Rex, still has very long and sharp teeth. And, boy, did those teeth of his do some fine slicing and dicing!

The first thing that passed through our mind when he began, especially with the empty chair dialogue, was that Mr. Eastwood was using the occasion to perhaps test a possible career shift into – stand-up comedy -. Based on the crowd’s reactions to that routine, it certainly suggested he could be as successful with that as with all the other aspects of his distinguished career.

When he had finished (well past his allotted time), the mass of delegates leaping to their feet gave him a full-throated, roaring, ovation. It was obvious they weren’t just cheering about his performance, but about the message imbedded in it. He had skillfully voiced what so many of us out here in voter country feel in our hearts and minds…neither party, nor any of their respective nominees, are doing right by us. They are more concerned about doing what might enhance their political positions, than they are about seriously focusing on what might best be done to fix our country’s parlous condition and needs as a whole.

Of course, by next day, media pundits, limousine liberal elites, et al, were all a twittering and frothing at the mouth about Mr. Eastwood’s “poor taste”, his apparent “incoherence”, and tut-tutting about his having publicly displayed himself  as a doddering old coot. Yeah…a doddering old coot…crazy like an old fox How much any of this will impact the outcome of these elections is hard to say, but at least , besides making our day, old Dirty Harry showed us what to really think about when we got to the polls in November.

Well, perhaps we Americans have reached that point which a famous Frenchman, Count Alexis de Tocqueville, opined during his second visit to our shores, back in the 1830’s. While he much admired the system the founders had created for the governance of our great republic (a system of delicate balance between individual liberty and enterprise and collective essentials and needs), he foresaw that it could all come apart if that balance was upset, and, when we citizens of this great republic finally realized we were being bribed with our own money, to keep a class of career political elites in power.

The way campaign money floods the process these days…old Count Alexis may have been prescient.

CENTURION