Clint Eastwood Warns Against Re-electing Barack Obama, Says The Future Of America Is "At Stake"

Hotair.com:

American Crossroads has a new ad out today, one that features a familiar face and voice — Clint Eastwood. Taking a distinctly more serious approach than his lighthearted, extemporaneous skit speech at the Republican Convention, Eastwood warns about rising dependence on China’s credit and the prospect of another four years of Barack Obama. America needs a turnaround artist, Eastwood says, and fortunately we have one at the ready: 

The reference to China will play well in Ohio and Pennsylvania, I’d bet — and I wouldn’t be surprised to see this ad go into heavy rotation in those states, as well as Virginia and New Hampshire. Eastwood’s iconic status may or may not impress Obama voters, but among older independents, Eastwood might be quite effective. It’s a smart move to roll this out in the final two weeks. 

Update: The New York Times reports that American Crossroads will run this in seven states — and that testing showed the ad to be very effective (via Michael Warren): 

After some testing, Crossroads found that potential audiences, who are often wary of celebrity endorsements, still appreciated Mr. Eastwood as an American icon and liked the idea of his appearance in the ad as long as it did not seem overdone. So while Mr. Eastwood narrates the entire ad, he appears on camera only at the very end. 

Mr. Eastwood, in an e-mailed statement, explained his motives. “I did the ad because I’m concerned for our country,” he said. “I really believe Mitt Romney is the kind of leader we need right now. He’s an experienced businessman, and he knows how to work with people to fix problems. It’s time to give someone else a chance to fix our country.” 

The ad starts running Wednesday in seven states: Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Nevada, New Hampshire, Ohio and Virginia. 

Not Pennsylvania, as I first thought — but that could change, too. 

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Joe Scarborough: Clint Eastwood Spoke 'From The Bottom Of A Bottle'

Gee, and this 'idiot' just can't figure out why critics often refer to him as a RINO:

Joe Scarborough has suggested that Clint Eastwood was drunk when he gave his RNC speech.

Today's Morning Joe opened with a clip of Mitt Romney telling David Gregory that it was a thrill to have  Eastwood speak on his behalf at the RNC, and that he felt Eastwood spoke "from the heart."  Scarborough came on and said that rather than speaking from the heart, Eastwood spoke more "from the bottom of a bottle."

RELATED: Joe Scarborough Blasts ‘Idiots’ Who Call Him A ‘RINO’ For Saying Romney Will Lose

Clint Eastwood Says Barack Obama Is 'The Greatest Hoax Ever Perpetrated on the American People'

Conservatives everywhere should be in love with this man:

AFTER A week as topic No. 1 in American politics, former Carmel Mayor Clint Eastwood said the outpouring of criticism from left-wing reporters and liberal politicians after his appearance at the Republican National Convention last Thursday night, followed by an avalanche of support on Twitter and in the blogosphere, is all the proof anybody needs that his 12-minute discourse achieved exactly what he intended it to.


“President Obama is the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people,” Eastwood told The Pine Cone this week. “Romney and Ryan would do a much better job running the country, and 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.”

Breaking his silence


For five days after he thrilled or horrified the nation by talking to an empty chair representing Obama on the night Mitt Romney accepted the Republican nomination for president, Eastwood remained silent while pundits and critics debated whether his remarks, and the rambling way he made them, had helped or hurt Romney’s chances of winning in November.


But in a wide-ranging interview with The Pine Cone Tuesday from his home in Pebble Beach, he said he had conveyed the messages he wanted to convey, and that the spontaneous nature of his presentation was intentional, too.


“I had three points I wanted to make,” Eastwood said. “That not everybody in Hollywood is on the left, that Obama has broken a lot of the promises he made when he took office, and that the people should feel free to get rid of any politician who’s not doing a good job. But I didn’t make up my mind exactly what I was going to say until I said it.”


Eastwood’s appearance at the convention came after a personal request from Romney in August, soon after Eastwood endorsed the former Massachusetts governor at a fundraiser in Sun Valley, Idaho. But it was finalized only in the last week before the convention, along with an agreement to build suspense by keeping it secret until the last moment.


Meanwhile, Romney’s campaign aides asked for details about what Eastwood would say to the convention.


“They vett 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,’” Eastwood recalled.


And while the Hollywood superstar has plenty of experience being adored by crowds, he said he hasn’t given a lot of speeches and admitted that, “I really don’t know how to.” He also hates using a teleprompter, so it was settled in his mind that when he spoke to the 10,000 people in the convention hall, and the millions more watching on television, he would do it extemporaneously.

“It was supposed to be a contrast with all the scripted speeches, because I’m Joe Citizen,” Eastwood said. “I’m a movie maker, but I have the same feelings as the average guy out there.”


Eastwood is a liberal on social issues such as gay marriage and abortion, but he has strongly conservative opinions about the colossal national debt that has accumulated while Obama has been president, his failure to get unemployment below 6 percent, and a host of other economic issues.


“Even people on the liberal side are starting to worry about going off a fiscal cliff,” Eastwood said.

RELATED: Eastwood: Mission accomplished

New Florida Poll Shows Vindication of Clint Eastwood Strategy

HotAir.com:

Feel lucky, punk?  When Republicans chose Tampa as the site for the 2012 national convention, they didn’t do it for the weather, obviously.  They saw Florida as a key to their hopes of winning the presidential election and hoped to make an impact on voters with their week-long argument for Republican control of the White House.  According to a snap poll from Survey USA of 754 registered voters who watched the final night of the convention, they may have switched 10% of the vote with the effort:

1,211 adults were interviewed statewide 08/31/12, after Romney, Florida’s Marco Rubio and Clint Eastwood spoke to the convention 08/30/12. Of the adults, 1,100 were registered to vote in Florida. Of the registered voters, 754 heard the convention speeches. Of the convention speech watchers:
* 66% did not change their mind.
*  16% switched from “undecided” to Romney.
*  6% switched from Obama to Romney.
*  Adding those 2 together, that’s 22% who switched TO Romney.
*  10% switched from “undecided” to Obama.
*  2% switched from Romney to Obama.
*  Adding those 2 together, that’s 12% who switched TO Obama.
*  Comparing the 2 aggregate numbers: 22% switched TO Romney, 12% switched TO Obama.

There is, however, a big caveat in this figures, which is that the people who watched the convention on the final night were still more Republican than the general population.  The D/R/I of this sample was 24/48/27, and the D/R/I of the 2010 midterms was 36/36/29.  That’s still significantly less Republican than I would have thought for a convention audience, and this might well be the first datum of success for the Clint Eastwood strategy.  Another data point would be the saturation among registered voters in Florida for the final night; in this survey, nearly 69% of registered voters in Florida tuned in.  That’s a pretty remarkable reach, and if that’s the case around the country, I’d say that Team Romney and the RNC won big.

Here’s another data point, too: the split among Florida voters to Eastwood’s speech was 49% positive to only 24% negative by the next day — presumably even after the avalanche of criticism for it.  The overall split is positive in almost all demos except Democrats (30/45) and liberals (26/58).  Majorities of independents (51/26), seniors (54/20), men (54/24) approved of it, but the biggest positive response came from Hispanics, 62/21 — even better than Republicans (58/12).  Even women (44/25) and black voters (43/37) liked Eastwood’s extemporaneous riff on President Obama.

The ultimate question, though, is whose minds were changed — and that looks bad for Obama almost along the same lines.  The aggregate numbers are shown above, but here are some key breakdowns in the demos, which we’ll calculate by adding those switching from either undecided or Obama to Romney, and those switching from undecided or Romney to Obama, in that order:

• Men: 32/16 (Romney/Obama switchers)
• Women: 15/9
• 18-34YOs: 29/15
• Black: 38/19
• Hispanic: 25/17
• Independent: 37/23

One last caveat: those tuning in among those demos would tend to be a little self-selecting as having an open enough mind to be convinced to switch.  Still, it’s pretty clear that at least in Florida, Eastwood not only got people to tune in, he got them to enjoy the evening and perhaps open their mind to support Mitt Romney.  If I’m Mitt Romney, I’d say that this makes my day.

RELATED: Rush Limbaugh: ‘Eastwood Succeeded In Getting Under Obama’s Skin’