Clint Eastwood at the 2012 Republican National Convention
speech by Clint Eastwood
On Thursday, August 30, 2012, American actor and director Clint Eastwood gave a speech at the Republican National Convention. Eastwood had endorsed Mitt Romney for the 2012 United States presidential election earlier that month, and spent much of his speech's running time on a largely improvised routine in which he addressed an empty chair that represented president Barack Obama. The speech, broadcast in a prime time slot, was viewed live by around 30 million people. It generated many responses and much discussion.
Background
Eastwood had a political background as the non-partisan mayor of Carmel-by-the-Sea, California, and he had served on various state commissions on parks and the film industry. He also previously endorsed Republican candidate John McCain during the 2008 United States presidential election. On August 3, 2012, Eastwood had formally endorsed former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney for the 2012 presidential election, speaking at a fundraiser for the candidate.
The three broadcast networks each devoted one hour of coverage to the convention per night, during the prime 10:00 to 11:00 p.m. time slot. In response to criticism that conventions are over-scripted, organizers did not disclose the identity of the first speaker who had been given the high profile speaking slot.
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This entry incorporates text from “Clint Eastwood at the 2012 Republican National Convention” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.