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Clint Eastwood's RNC Speech Gets Nation's Attention
Update 8/31 @ 9:45 a.m.: The @InvisibleObama account was suspended by Twitter for a bit Friday morning, but is back.
I'm back. Sorry about that.@twitter took the invisible thing a little too literally. Now where were we...— Invisible Obama (@InvisibleObama) August 31, 2012
Our original post continues:
Clint Eastwood, the Republican National Convention's big surprise speaker, had a few surprises in store himself. In the most unusual appearance at this year's convention, Eastwood had a "conversation" with President Obama, represented by an empty chair.
As NPR's Mark Memmott described in Thursday night's live blog, "The actor took shots at 'Obama' for not creating jobs, for setting a departure day for troops in Afghanistan and on other issues. He said he cried the night Obama was elected — not tears of anger or joy but because of the historic nature of the president's election. But now the U.S., he said, needs a businessman in the Oval Office."
The actor went on to to tell the empty chair, "You're crazy. You're absolutely crazy. You're getting as bad as Biden. Of course we all know Biden is the intellect of the Democratic party, just kind of a grin with a body behind it."
The speech immediately set the Twittersphere on fire. Within minutes an @InvisibleObama account was created and at last check (at 1:30 a.m. Friday) the account had over 33,000 followers.
When Mitt Romney says "Mr. Chairman", do you think he's referring to me?— Invisible Obama (@InvisibleObama) August 31, 2012
Eventually, #eastwooding became a trending topic, with users posting photos of their very own empty chairs. An Eastwood/Chair 2012 campaign photo was even floating around.
And now the kitten is doing it.#eastwooding twitter.com/ant5s/status/2…— Anthea (@ant5s) August 31, 2012
#Eastwooding#Invis-O-bama BOO! "Don't Boo, VOTE!" twitter.com/FatherofMaeve/…— Ammon Torrence (@FatherofMaeve) August 31, 2012
#RNC spokesman: "Time for a change" I agree. Eastwood/Chair 2012 twitter.com/zdroberts/stat…— Zach D Roberts (@zdroberts) August 31, 2012
And, to top it all off, Obama's campaign joined in, tweeting from the president's account their own version of #eastwooding:
This seat's taken. OFA.BO/c2gbfi, twitter.com/BarackObama/st…— Barack Obama (@BarackObama) August 31, 2012
So, on Mitt Romney's big night, did Clint Eastwood steal the show? What did you think of Eastwood's speech?