The genius of Clint Eastwood

On the final night of the Republican convention, Clint Eastwood took the stage as the mystery speaker. He delivered an 11 minute unrehearsed bit that even impressed uber lefty and experienced public performer Bill Maher. "He did a bit with just an empty chair and he killed it." He also said "he committed to it, it was consistent and it worked.

If you didn't see it, you should watch Clint's speech before you read any farther. Even my wife said that it was funny, though she disagreed with most of it. It's about 12 minutes long, and safe for work.

The political and chattering classes have had two basic reactions to Eastwood's speech. Conservatives and Republicans loved it, liberals hated it, some going so far as to say they thought he looked and sounded senile.

The thing both of those groups missed is that they weren't Clint's target audience. Don't get me wrong, he delivered a speech to a friendly crowd that he knew would love it, and they ate it up. But he was really talking to the undecided and still-leaning voters.

Clint started by talking about how he felt, how almost all American's felt the night President Obama was elected. Even though I hoped he would lose, and suspected he would be an awful president, it was impossible not to be proud that I lived in a country that could elect a skinny black kid with a funny name to the highest office in the land. I think most Americans, even those that thought he would be a disaster for the country had that thought in the back of their minds.

Over the past six months of campaigning, we have been deluged with lefty media commentary condemning any organized opposition to the President's reelection as racist, mysogenistic, hateful bigotry. It's not true, but the narrative has been intense.

Clint started by describing the emotion of the night Obama was elected, validating the emotions we all felt. Then he transitioned into the last three years, talking about the stagnant economy, high unemployment rates, the horribly mismanaged war in Afghanistan, the major failures of the President's administration.

Then he presented Romney and Ryan, the men with a plan. He presented their qualifications, business men, leaders with records of success and competence and a plan to fix this country. To paraphrase a line from the President, these are the ones we have been waiting for.

Finally we come to the the genius of Clint's speech. After laying out the case against Obama and the case for Romney, he explained that it was ok to vote against Obama.

This is the people's country, not the politicians country. If America is a company, the politicians are the executives and the leaders running it, but we, the people, are the shareholders. Ultimately the politicians work for us, not the other way around. When those politicians fail at their jobs, we as the shareholders have a moral obligation to remove them and find people who can succeed at their jobs.

It's not racist to vote against Obama. A vote for Romney is not a vote for bigotry, hatred, intolerance or any of the claptrap that has been peddled by the media and democrat establishment for the last six months. It's a business decision, nothing more. Obama had his opportunity, he was given his chance, and he failed. Removing him from office, as Spock might say, is the logical decision.