Selection of Twitter comments re Clint Eastwood's GOP convention speech.

Maybe Clint is a sleeper agent for the Democrats sent in under deep cover to make the Republicans look stupid. No wait, that's Romney.--Simon Pegg

Clint Eastwood on the phone with Obama now: "It all went according to plan,sir." --Chris Rock

I know what it was like for Clint Eastwood. In my career, I’ve talked to more than a few “empty chairs.”--Conan O'Brien

If Clint wanted to run for important office, the Base would veto him. He's speaking to the Republican Party of his memory.--Roger Ebert

Clint's imaginary Obama uses the F bomb. My imaginary Obama feels Clint really humiliated himself tonight and feels bad for him.--Sean Mannion

Dear GOD... let's hope that Eastwood doesn't die before making something great. This and his wife's reality show would be sad last memories.--David Poland

Analyzing Mitt Romney and opening act Clint Eastwood..

If you're Clint Eastwood, you're used to running things and getting your own way.  This probably explains why Clint's Thursday night GOP convention speech (demonstrating a willingness to try for improv comedy; i.e. the Empty Chair prop) had the air of something that might be seen in a luxury restaurant/penthouse at a Republican candidates fundraising dinner with millionaires/billionaires (and no ordinary people) in attendance.  I can easily imagine the Mitt Romney entourage giving Clint a prepared speech--and Clint throwing it aside saying "I'M NOT GONNA READ THIS CRAP!"  Ergo, the rambling ruminations which sounded a lot like Clint's character putting down all in sight during the early reels of GRAN TORINO.

As for Mitt Romney: There was a lot of rose-colored Remembrances of Simple Loving Times Past rhetoric which gave me the impression that both Peggy Noonan and Karen Hughes may have contributed to his speech.  There was the inevitable attempt to link Barack Obama to Jimmy Carter.  And, most sickening, the primal Dog Whistle to the conventioneers and TV/online audiences: "THE HELL WITH CLIMATE CHANGE!  I'LL MAKE YOU FEEL GOOD ABOUT YOURSELVES JUST LIKE REAGAN DID!"

Will vote for Obama again--but with reservations.

In 2012, we're faced with a clear choice between two Presidential candidates.

Either vote for the flawed incumbent or vote for the even-more-flawed challenger who wants (among other things) to take American women back to the no-choice patriarchal era of the past.

Regarding Barack Obama, it's quite likely we're in for another four years just like the first term.

In the September issue of HARPER'S, there's a must-read article by Thomas Frank on "Obama in the desert of centrism."  And it says things that most of the blind-faith Obama supporters don't want to read/hear.

Here are a few quotes from the article:
"...President Obama has pursued government secrecy to a degree even the Bush administration never dared, and that he has arrogated to himself the right to kill American citizens overseas who have not been convicted of any crime.  President Obama likes (or used to like) to extend the hand of kindness to the nation's bankers: "Help me help you," he implored them back in 2009.  When he decided to go populist and snarl at the One Percent, he took care to dispatch an emissary to New York to let the finance industry know he didn't mean it.  (Just as he didn't mean it when he badmouthed NAFTA or promised to revisit the Patriot Act.)"

"For the Obama years to be terminated [if he loses because of GOP attacks on him as a "socialist"] on such grounds would furnish future historians with vast deposits of irony.  The president is a man whose every instinct is conciliatory.  He is not merely a casual seeker of bipartisan consensus; he is an intellectually committed believer in it.  He simply cannot imagine a dispute in which one antagonist is right and the other is wrong.  No, there is always something honorable about both sides, some concession to be made by each.  His presidency has been one long quest for a "grand bargain," as he has sometimes put it, between red and blue."

"What Barack Obama has saved [referring to the financial crisis] is a bankrupt elite that by all rights should have met its end back in 2009.  He came to the White House amid circumstances similar to those of 1933, but proceeded to rule like Herbert Hoover.  Today the banks are as big as ever, and he has done precious little about it.  The regulatory system is falling apart, and he is too idelogically demure to tell us why.  Organized labor is crumbling, and he has done almost nothing to help it recover.  Meanwhile, the people who told us that finance was king, that the "new economy" changed all the rules, that we didn't really need a strong supervisory state--those people are still riding high, still making their pronouncements from the heights of the op-ed page and the executive branch."

Nonetheless, I will go into the voting booth in November and mark my ballot for Obama's re-election.  If a Romney administration comes to power, it will be with truly dire consequences for the nation and the world.  Better to stay with a President who has scored a few mild victories in spite of willful GOP obstructionism--even if the notions of Hope and Change are little more than campaign promises that, like most, remain undelivered upon.

Roundup of Twitter comments (including my own) on the Ann Romney/Chris Christie GOP Show.

Media will go gaga over A Romney speech, make it seem like it is a momentum shifter. But in the end, it won't change many minds, if any.--Joe Adalian

Ann Romney is Princess Fiona working warm-up to Chris Christie's Shrek.--Colby Hall

Ann channels Oprah vocalese: "I love you WOMEN!!!"--me

When was the last time Ann Romney had to worry about grocery bills? Fn please--Mac G

Ann Romney knows well all "the little things" that average American women face. Like broken private garage elevators.--Marc Cooper

Ann Romney mentions her dad, omitting that he died an atheist & Mitt led a Mormon proxy baptism for him.--John Fugelsang

"Try to do okay" is actually not horrible advice to give a child.--Paul F. Tompkins

 

Ann Romney on how her husband "built success" -- yea, with internet, education, roads,infrastructure supported by government.Community,Ann.--Katrina vanden Huevel

 

Ann's portrayal of being impoverished in college got her in trouble in '94 Sen race--they lived off Romney stock options.--David Shuster

 

Chris Christie will spend a great deal of time introducing nat'l tv aud to a Repub he thinks they should know better. Chris Christie.--David Carr

 

Somebody tell Chris Christie the GI bill that put his father through Rutgers University was a government program.--Sean Mannion

 

Wondering if Chris Christie ever seriously listened to the lyrics on DARKNESS ON THE EDGE OF TOWN.--me

 

Ann Romney said she wanted to talk about love. Chris Christie says the country is "paralyzed by a need to be loved."--Think Progress

 

Christie: "Tonight, we're going to choose respect over love."... Ann Romney: "Tonight I want to talk to you about love,"--Sam Stein

 

Note to Chris Christie: You balanced your budget with STIMULUS money.--Joseph J. Santorsa

 

Christie sounds as if he's about to say, "and I accept your nomination as president"--Sean Mannion

 

Christie mentions his dad graduating from college (GI Bill?) and daughters marching w/soccer team (Title IX).--Glennia

 

How many undecideds does Christie think he will win over with his menacing macho act? It's dangerous to believe ur own propaganda.--Marc Cooper

 

Uh-oh. Christie essentially promising that Mitt will be an 18th-century doctor bleeding America with the alleged Austerity Cure.--me

 

Christie: "Dems ideas have failed America." So come on everybody, let's start two more unfunded wars AND cut taxes. You loved 2008, right?--Sean Mannion

 

Mitt Romney will tell us the hard truths, like "You're fired" and he will love it.--American Prospect

 

Ahhh, Christie playing the Fox News Fear Card. Well done, sir. Line him up for a show to host.--Sean Mannion

 

Chris Matthews claims Chris Christie's blustering oratory had a "touch of Churchill."--me

 

Rachel Maddow on Chris Christie speech: "One of the greatest acts of political selfishness I have ever seen on a stage."--Dana Stevens

 

Noticed Ann Romney's granite stare at Chris Christie when she and Mitt were applauding from their box.--me

 

Nearly the only thing one could not have taken away from Christie's speech is that one should vote for Romney.--Sam Seder

 

Chris Christie delivered the Menote Speech.--Lizz Winstead

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Selected comments on Romney's choice of Paul Ryan from Twitter.

Just think: In two years, THE NEWSROOM will be reporting Romney's VP pick.--Franklin Harris
Listen, any time you can double down on rich white guys who want to take healthcare away from people, you just gotta do it.--Jordan Zakarin
HBO already on "Game Change 2".--BWD
Little-known fact about Paul Ryan is that the first budget he introduced in Congress was a dog-eared copy of Atlas Shrugged.--Top Conservative Cat aka Tea Party Cat
The Ryan pick tells us that Romney was more concerned about winning his base than he was winning in November.--Markos Moulitsas (DAILY KOS)
Can't wait to see the transformation Julianne Moore makes to play Paul Ryan in four years.--Jordan Zakarin
Has there ever been a presidential ticket featuring two guys with better hair (or worse policy plans) than Romney/Ryan?--Scott Feinberg
NBC NEws reports that Tagg Romney told Pawlenty and Portman that they weren't the pick. Romney delegated the calls!--Marc Ambinder
Paul Ryan's been walking around w/ pair of salad tongs for 2months, trying to make Mitt think he's a fellow robot.--Hunter aka HunterDK