Actor Clint Eastwood speaks Thursday. He's used to causing a stir: His Super Bowl ad for Chrysler tells of Americans struggling in hard times.
TAMPA -- By the time mystery speaker Clint Eastwood came onstage just after 10 p.m. Thursday, the surprise was long out of the bag.
But his remarks, delivered in a halting, sometimes shaky voice, still may have caught the listening nation off guard: He spoke to an empty chair that he told those gathered at the Republican National Convention was occupied by President Barack Obama.
Weird? Clever? Definitely different.
"When somebody does not do the job, we've got to let them go," he said.
He even imagined that Obama talked back, even sassed him.
"What do you want me to tell (Republican presidential nominee Mitt) Romney? I can't tell him to do that. He can't do that to himself," Eastwood said to the roar of the audience.
His gag of talking to an empty chair inspired a Twitter account named @InvisibleObama that already had more than 25,000 followers before midnight Thursday.
While Hollywood generally is the province of Democrats, Eastwood said there are plenty of conservatives and moderates in Hollywood who want change.
"There are 23 million unemployed people in this country. And that is something to cry for," he said. "It's a national disgrace and this administration hasn't done enough to cure that."
Eastwood, 82, created a political stir earlier this year when he starred in a two-minute Chrysler Super Bowl ad called "It's Halftime in America."
Both Chrysler and Eastwood defended their commercial against pundits who said it was more of a pro-Obama political statement than a car ad.
In the commercial, Eastwood talked about the challenges still facing America as both the country and Chrysler work to fully recover from the recession of 2008-09.
Eastwood had previously spoken out against federal loans provided to Chrysler, General Motors and some of the world's largest financial institutions.
On Thursday, he reiterated his support for Romney.
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Edited By Cen Fox Post Team
