Eastwood Calls Obama the 'Greatest Hoax'

Actor says he decided to talk to chair minutes before he went out
By Kevin Spak,  Newser Staff
Posted Sep 7, 2012 12:53 PM CDT
Eastwood Calls Obama the 'Greatest Hoax'
Actor Clint Eastwood speaks to an empty chair while addressing delegates during the Republican National Convention in Tampa, Fla., on Thursday, Aug. 30, 2012.   (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky)

Clint Eastwood doesn't regret his, er, unique RNC speech, saying it accomplished everything he wanted it to. The 82-year-old gave his first interview since the convention to the Carmel Pine Cone, a tiny outlet from Carmel-by-the-Sea, California, where he was once mayor. "President Obama is the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people," Eastwood says. "That's what everybody needs to know. I may have irritated a lot of the lefties, but I was aiming for people in the middle."

Eastwood says he came up with only a rough outline of his speech that morning. "They vet most of the people, but I told them, 'You can’t do that with me, because I don’t know what I’m going to say.'" He came up with the idea of berating an empty chair in the green room, minutes before going on. It was "very unorthodox," he says, but that was the goal. "It was supposed to be a contrast with all the scripted speeches, because I’m Joe Citizen." (More Clint Eastwood stories.)

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