>> clint eastwood is clint eastwood. he did do some improving to make a serious point that 23 million americans are out of work and it is a very big deal and time for a change. >> you must have been a bit queasy. he was supposed to speak for five minutes. he ad libbed for another seven. at one point, you have dirty harry talking to an empty chair. >> he ad libbed but he was making a very serious point. the crowd loved it. you can't look at clint eastwood, an american icon. you can't look at him through the same political lens you would other politicians. he is clint eastwood. >> if you wake up tomorrow and the headlines are, clint eastwood goes bonkers. >> they won't be, because mitt romney had a killer speech. he did three things that were very important for him to do. he talked about his positive vision for the future and where he wants to take this country. he suck sisfully and very effectively prosecuted the case against barack obama and finally, he talk td about what's important to him. that's what americans want to

he's clint eastwood. >> if you wake up tomorrow and all of the headlines are clint eastwood goes bunkers, that's not good for you, is it? >> they won't be and i'll tell you why. mitt romney had a killer speech tonight. he talked about his positive vision for the country and wants to successfully and very effectively prosecuted the case against barack obama and talks about what is important to him. so that's what americans want to hear. we have the obligation to talk about the big differences between our campaign and what president obama has done and when you look at what mitt romney wants to do, he wants to have a stronger middle class with more jobs and takehome pay compared to what this president has done with the 23 million americans struggling to find work. >> i've got to be honest, i rather enjoyed the speech. i've seen twitter, some people loved it and i thought he did a solid job they are 70 days left. where we'll go from tampa is to all of the targeted states and we'll take the same message. we will continue to contrast governor romney's positive mission. americans are not happy

eastwood?ng about gitmo? a lot of my friends on the pretty tough left were angry about the president for not delivering, people in my family, younger members of my family. thinking not getting rid of gitmo was a big deal. here saying he promised -- does he want to get rid of gitmo, no, he said it was a good investment we got to keep it. so what was the point of that? >> he was clearly off the prompter at that point. there were hundreds of people going no, no! >> you can't blame that on the prompter. >> that was the thing, nothing on the prompter, they just decided on the most important night of mitt romney's life they let this guy come out and say whatever he wanted to say. >> let's take a look at this. somebody thought of some genius here, clint eastwood's speech, brings to mind the famous line from ross perot's chosen vp admiral stockdale in the october 1992 debate. it's not fair, he's a great american hero but what a line. just watch. >> your opening statement please, sir? >> who am i? why a

rg >>> back to politics and hashtag eastwooding, what people are calling clint eastwood's stunt before governor romney's acceptance speech last night. moments after clint eastwood's speech, even ann romney referred to it as, quote, unique. twitter exploded with users mocking him by tweeting pictures of people with empty chairs. the obama campaign also did a little eastwooding of its own, tweeting this picture of the president with a caption that reads, this seat's taken. eastwood's so-called obama has its own twitter page. let's bring jimmy and chip back in. we know right after that speech, the campaign came out and said he was ad libbing and there's no way we should see him through the same lens as politicians even though he has a political background, mayor of carmel. we know that. please be honest, chip. what did you think of that moment yesterday? i'm begging you for honesty here. >> i'm always honest on your show. this is going to shock you. i was speechless after that. i didn't know what to say. i grew up watching every clint eastwood movie. he's an icon. he's a legend. you're ne

i think clint eastwood is iconic.hink most people out there, most americans will actually remember the clint eastwood endorsing and supporting mitt romney in this election and then they will move on to the issues they care about most, which is did he give them the confidence to lead them for the next four years and are the policies what we need. that's where we are in this campaign. >> fair enough. in fact, the "new york times" laid it out on the front page today, that this is really a marriage and some would say a bad marriage, and what the romney campaign has to do is persuade americans that they really want to divorce this man they fell in love with, barack obama. that's the "new york times" analogy. here's one of the moments from that speech last night. >> how many days have you woken up feeling that something really special was happening in america. many of you felt that way on election day four years ago, hope and change had a powerful appeal. but tonight, i would ask a simple question. if you felt that exciteme

it was the block that eastwood could have filled. it wasn't the performance. >> we want to go back to lakeland, florida, because any minute we'll see paul ryan and mitt romney back together. let's get right to peter alexander in lakeland where it looks a little warm there, peter. >> yeah, we may not see mitt romney last night because the event started late and there were several protesters in the hall. and rightfully despite the fact that he's a stickler for being on time but only because the temperature here is in the 80s but he has to do new orleans later today. of course the temperatures will be in the mid-90s. as we await the arrival of romney and paul ryan, you can see the new plane that romney will be flying on. this is his new ride. it says "believe in america." the romney campaign tells us that they were invited to travel to louisiana, to new orleans by the governor of that state, bobby jindal. they'll go on the storm damage tour with him today, thanking all the first responders and the people who were affected by hurricane i

clint eastwood. everybody has an opinion including, of course, ann romney. again because, again, the words of what ann romney said when you read them do not do the justice. you have to watch her reaction. here she is. >> do you wish that video had aired in prime time instead of clint eastwood's monologue? >> you know, i think it's important that people do see that side of mitt. we appreciated clint's support, of course, but yes, i do wish more people had seen -- had seen those touching moments. >> well, that was the first part of the question, of course, we played earlier the second part. obviously ann romney didn't think the clint eastwood thing went that well. what do you think? >> i'll add perspective on conversation. "space cowboys" was much worse than what clint eastwood said last night. voters won't remember it. voters will remember that clint eastwood was there, but they won't remember how completely awkward it was. >> however, it is the first thing you saw when an additional 15 to 20 million people tuned in at that 10:00 hour on the broadcast network

>> reporter: eastwood also had the invisible mr. obama uttering obscenities. >> what do you want me to tell romney? i can't tell him to do that. he can't do that to himself. >> reporter: eastwood was scheduled to speak for five minutes but ignored the red light to wrap up and spoke for twice as long. as traffic on twitter about the actor's bizarre speech spiked, the romney campaign rushed out a statement, even as their candidate was delivering his acceptance speech. "judging an american icon like clint eastwood through a typical political lens doesn't work" the statement said. his ad-libbing was a break from the political speeches and the crowd enjoyed it. the obama campaign quickly tweeted a picture of the president in his white house chair with the caption "this seat's taken." and the morning after mitt romney's big moment it was eastwood who was the top trending topic on google. one republican official told cbs news political director john dickerson that eastwood was not scripted because they didn't want to rein in his creativity

by -- >> clint eastwood. >> yeah.t i thought it was a go ahead night for our -- good night for our side. >> how about mitt romney? >> you forget how good he is. i think ann romney set him up perfectly after her speech the other night and her command of the stage, commanding silence, using silence as a weapon almost. all he really had to do was be genuine, be himself and he was. you know, i think he's so good that people forget how good he is. >> he's a good man. is he a good leader, a good public official? he doesn't seem comfortable in that role. >> he's tremendously comfortable in that role. he grasps responsibility. when there was a disaster in the big dig in the mass turnpike he grabbed it and said i want authority over this and he took it and cleaned the thing up like with the olympics. never more comfortable than when making decisions. i would describe him as a born executive with a ton of discipline. that may strike some people as formality but you want a commander in chief that has a gear loose. i don't think

the hash tag, eastwooding, the tim tebow eet mocking photos of clint eastwood, east wooding, properingp chairs and pointing fingers at unoccupied sofas. it attracted more than 35,000 followers overnight. and the president's campaign staff wasting no time to join in. tweeting this photo with the caption, this seat is taken. still too early, why wait, morning joe, live in tampa, just moments away. ♪ ♪ i can do anything ♪ i can do anything today ♪ i can go anywhere ♪ i can go anywhere today ♪ la la la la la la la [ male announcer ] dow solutions help millions of people by helping to make gluten free bread that doesn't taste gluten free. together, the elements of science and the human element can solve anything. solutionism. the new optimism. and the human element can solve anything. ♪ atmix of energies.ve the world needs a broader that's why we're supplying natural gas to generate cleaner electricity... that has around 50% fewer co2 emissions than coal. and it's also why, with our partner in brazil, shell is producing ethanol - a biofuel made from renewable sugarcane. >>a minute, mom! let

it wasn't just with eastwood. they let chris christie go off and promote chris christie for president in 2016 campaign. it's uncharacteristic. they just let everybody go wild. >> both conventions, there was a whole speech writing operation where every single speaker has to submit their remarks. >> you know this stuff, karen. >> they cut it out if they don't like a line they have with fear of death if you repeat it on the stage. every single thing is timed out as dana was saying, so how this slipped through is a complete mystery. >> except, professor peterson, wasn't clint eastwood representing the republican party? a distillation of their attitudes of the president, which is basically, shut up and go and do something unspeakable to yourself? >> it was. he seemed to be paternalistic. the whole idea of sitting a united states president down and talking down to him is paternalistic beyond remark here, so he did seem to fit in with some of the themes of the ways in which the republican party wanted to depict this pres

we'll show you some of our eastwooding antics.ment with a chair in his office there. not sure who's winning that one. s.e. was sort of trying to play the parent on the playground, getting down to the level of the chair there -- >> heart to heart. >> have a heart-to-heart chat. that's a nice, tender moment there. i like krystal's. krystal was channeling michelle obama, got on the couch for -- trying to get into the soul of the chair there, i think. and i think succeeded. >> it was a special moment. >> you're good at that. when it was my turn, it was a little uncomfortable and a little awkward because i got, i think, a really good point across. i was feeling good about myself. and then the chair got really frustrated and it actually jumped up and attacked me. it took a while to fight off. >> did you win the fight with the chair? >> it was a draw. >> lost to an inanimate object. >> i think the chair was on the juice. i don't want to say -- >> nice. >> i don't want to impugn his competitive integrity. so much we could say. s.e., you w

can't do that to himself. >> the convention crowd seemed to enjoy eastwood. the off the cuff remarks left political commentators scratching their heads wondering if he had taken the spotlight off mitt romney's speech. >> this speech is going to make the front page of the new york times and the washington post but the talk shows, all the morning shows, he's going to be competing for attention with clint eastwood. i just think that's not a very good political strategy. >> i'll start it. you finish it. go ahead. all: make my day. >> the reaction online to eastwood's appearance was swift. a twitter account called @invisible obama popped up within minutes gaining tens of thousands of followers. the president himself offered a response on the social networking site. his official account tweeting a picture of mr. obama sitting in his official chair with the message, "this seat is taken." >> eastwood is no stranger to politics. he's a registered republican but has supported democrats in the past. in 1986, he was elected mayor of carmel by the city of california. >>>

eastwood is publicly backing a so said eastwood at a romney fund-raiser in california last week. six months ago eastwood was featured in a chrysler ad broadcast during the super bowl. >> people of detroit know there's something about this. they almost lost everything. but we all pulled together. now motor city is fighting again. >> mr. eastwood says the ad was about job growth, and the spirit of america, not an endorsement of president obama. >> question. is oprah's 2008 endorsement of obama the equivalent of clint eastwood's 2012 endorsement of romney? eleanor clift. >> i love clint eastwood but i just don't think he carries the same kind of constituency. >> you mean women. you mean a lot of women. >> well, even -- >> what's this again? >> oprah had a dedicated following. people would buy any book she told them to buy. few right. >> i tried to get her to endorse my book. didn't work. >> she has more -- >> by far, by far. and obama's got dirty harry reid on his side. >> she brings that female vote which we said on this program is so critical and under analyzed. >> she's an import

clint eastwood. susan mcginnis? >> absolutely at clint eastwood's speech and then there's mitt romney, who talking to folks here, he definitely delivered last night. he promised no new taxes on the middle class and 12 million new jobs. mitt romney got a standing ovation as he entered the convention hall for the biggest speech of his life. >> i am proud to introduce to you the next president of the united states of america, mitt romney. >>nd romney wasted little time making his nomination official. >> i accept your nomination for president of the united states. >> he focused on his life, including an emotional nod to his parents. >> my mom and dad were true partners. a life lesson that shaped me by everyday example. when my mom ran for the senate, my dad was there for her every step of the way. >> he laid out why he should win in november. >> i have a plan to create 12 million new jobs. >> and why he thinks president obama should not win. >> you know there's something wrong with the kind of job he's done as president

as for clint eastwood, yes, you're right. of people are sort of shaking their heads and saying, what was that all about last night? you could say that clint eastwood certainly had a sudden impact if i may use one of his movie titles there, but the campaign is putting out a statement there this morning, a bit of pushback on the criticism of eastwood, saying, yes, this was improv, but putting out this statement. judging an american icon like clint eastwood through a typical political lens doesn't work. his ad libbing was a break from the political speeches and the crowd enjoyed it. he rightly pointed out that 23 million americans are out of work or underemployed and that's a national disgrace and it's time for a change --. . clint eastwood referred to 23 million unemployed people, and we have known now for a while that is not accurate, carol. >> it's more like 12 million, right? which is still a lot of people unemployed. >> that's right. you add the underemployed in there to get to 23 million. and that's a number that the campa

a rambling clint eastwood and his chair.ot an exclusive interview with the man himself. we'll get to him in a minute. honestly, i woke up this morning and i wasn't sure it really happened, but right before the biggest speech of governor romney's life, this happened. >> i've got mr. obama sitting here, and he's -- i just was going to ask him a couple questions. how do you handle promises that you made when you were running for election and how do you handle, how do you handle it? what do you say to people? do you just -- what do you mean shut up? i'm not going to shut up. it's my turn. i think if you just kind of stepped ide and mr. romney can kind of take over, you can still use the plane. though maybe a smaller one. speaking out for everybody out there, it doesn't hurt, we don't have to be -- i don't say that word anymore. well, maybe one last time. i'll start it, you finish it. go ahead -- >> make my day! >> thank you. >> yes, america, it was not a dream. from washington to hollywood, it's all anyone is talking about. the

he's clint eastwood. >> if you wake up tomorrow and all of the headlines are clint eastwood goes bunkers's not good for you, is it? >> they won't be and i'll tell you why. mitt romney had a killer speech tonight. he talked about his positive vision for the country and wants to successfully and very effectively prosecuted the case against barack obama and talks about what is important to him. so that's what americans want to hear. we have the obligation to talk about the big differences between our campaign and what president obama has done and when you look at what mitt romney wants to do, he wants to have a stronger middle class with more jobs and take-home pay compared to what this president has done with the 23 million americans struggling to find work. >> i've got to be honest, i rather enjoyed the speech. i've seen twitter, some people loved it and i thought he did a solid job they are 70 days left. where we'll go from tampa is to all of the targeted states and we'll take the same message. we will continue to contrast governor romney's positive mission. americans are not happy with

eastwoods chair. the most attention has come from this parody twitter handle called invisible obama with over 40,000 followers right now. also last night who got some attention was senator marco rubio. and while he is not all the talk today, he was during his speech. when it came to the most tweets per minute, he came in second with close to 9,000. eastwood right behind him on that one. reinforcing the importance of the latino vote, romney's son took to the stage. >> mi padre, mitt romney -- [ speaking spanish ] >> rubio and son romney's efforts were aimed at the few latino delegates on the floor. but more importantly latino voters at home. one way to reach them has been said by some analysts socialed me wra. younger voters are almost twice as likely to be using twitter. 31% paired to 15 for all adults. not only age. latinos use twitter more often than other ethnic groups. 12% of hispanics use twitter on cell phones while just 7% of whites do and african-americans on this count. the same is true onlin

as weird as it seemed to us. >> stephanie: well, he is clint eastwood. >> it was very awkward, but he made the gop acknowledge [ inaudible ]. and it is also so weird that this is for mitt romney who said let detroit go bankrupt. you have mr. halftime in america with mr. let's throw the game. >> stephanie: but i thought he got up on the stage with a chair said a lot. [ laughter ] >> stephanie: the president had the best tweet. ho is sitting in the oval office chair and he said this seat is taken. [♪ circus music ♪] >> she said ann romney looked seriously perturbed. >> stephanie: mitt's speech i thought was shallow and full of lies. >> i thought it was a fine speech. >> i think cenk said it was going to be forgettable, and then i just forgot about it. >> stephanie: we spent the first several minutes talking about the eastwood speech. >> and the rose story was awkward. he said my mother got a rose every day and the day she didn't she knew his father was dead. >> well he showed real emotion for the first time in his life. >> his father gave his mother a flow

clint eastwood aside where does last night leave us now? >> it's critical talking to the romney campaign. they know how important the gender gap is and the appeal to women in the governor's speech, mitt romney's speech was such a central focus they felt that he revealed more of himself, did himself some good in terms of making that personal connection. i spoke to a high level republican lobbyist coming back from tampa and he said four years ago there was a sense that mccain just couldn't win. this time there is a sense that the party's warming up to romney and that he is staying close enough to be in the game and actually win this thing. on the democratic side speaking to team obama advisers today the president's team thinking there is an area of vulnerability. expect the president to be much more specific, to offer some tangible ways forward particularly on the economy when he addresses his delegates to the convention next week. they think that is when independent, undecided voters want to hear, brian. >> david gregory part of our tampa te

clint eastwood i strongly disagree.ond. >> look, the best speech of the convention was given by romney. it was just given by ann, not by mitt. he wasn't terrible. he really wasn't. but he didn't do what he needed to do. it was ann's job to humanize him. and she did a wonderful job. she took this an ma tronic robot, which is most people's image of governor romney. and made him into a dad, a husband. it was a terrific speech by ann romney. but mitt didn't then have to do that. he didn't have to humanize himself further, and he's not very good at it. he need today chart a course. what is he going to do to create jobs for the middle class different from what bush did, different from what obama did? he could have been a third-way leader but it's not in him. he doesn't have any ideas that herbert hoover or george w. bush couldn't run on. >> hold on, mary. instead of speaking in general -- generalities if you will, what he wants to do, should he have gone in this acceptance speech into those kinds of specific details what he w

the clint eastwood that we know, the image of the clint eastwood we know, and it was disappointing. i sort of felt like where were his people to say no, we're not letting him go out on stage with his hair unbrushed and just wing it. >> i had the impression clint said yes, i'll do it and they said what do you want to do and he said i'll just think of something and they said fine. that's a mistake. the very least he should have asked for an opening line. >> exactly. >> look what's happened. i have been sitting out here for six or seven minutes. what have we been talking about? mitt romney? no. that's the take-home from last night's event. >> let us talk about mitt romney, he whose name shall not be mentioned. how did mitt romney do last night, in terms of presenting his case as an actor? >> not as an actor but as a performer, let's say. he's not an actor. >> yes. sorry. >> i would say that he has certainly improved, without question. he was more confident. he was more assertive. he was more relaxed. and let us now ask why. he was preaching to the converted. he was, as we say, preachin

quickly, you two. >> i'm a big clint eastwood fan. i think he's thrilling.'m in the over 50 group that david is talking about. i was thoroughly disappointed to see my hero look so uncertain and you know, incoherent is probably too strong. it didn't seem to hold together. i never got what is the message, what is the point. it seemed a little bit degrading to the president. i wasn't comfortable with that. >> brit: one thing. it stretched on. he had 5 minutes and it went 12 minutes. it pushed back the romney speech. >> generally when there's a consensus among the washington press corps that something is awful and horrendous, i like it. that wasn't necessarily the case this time around. the big practical problem is that we spent a lot of time today, everybody spent a lot of time today talking about clint eastwood and not mitt romney and not marco rubio. this program last night was meant to highlight marco rubio. many more minutes spent talking about east wood than marco rubio. > >> brit: next up, the friday lightning round. blac follow the wings. >> brit: welcom

what was the reaction to clint eastwood? >> it was not positive. people found it a little bit bizarre and very long winded. he had lived for 12 minutes when he was scheduled for 5 minutes. i want to play one of the parts of the speech which is seen as one of the more impact falls >> i just think that it is important that you realized that you are the best in the world and whether your democrat or republican or libertarian or whatever, you are the best and we should not ever forget that and when somebody does not do the job, we have to let them go. >> ann romney was asked about eastwood's performance and some of the other comments he made were to an empty chair that was supposed to be president obama. ann romney graciously said he is a unique guy who did a unique thing. a lot of republicans think that clint eastwood did no favors for mitt romney. >> the democrats get their turn next week and the weather is once again a concern. president obama is slated to deliver his acceptance speech at an outdoor theater. early forecasts show rain and thunderstor

clint eastwood. as i long time fan, i'm asking myself what was the romney campaign thinking in booking this guy in the one hour they had to sell the country. plus, democrats -- voter suppression, finally, a federal judge stops ohio republicans from stopping in person voting on the last weekend before election day. progress there in texas. let's hope pennsylvania makes the right decision. finally, let me finish with the biggest distortion this week. the republicans wanted president obama to succeed. this is h"hardball." the place for politics. [ male announcer ] wouldn't it be cool if we took the nissan altima and reimagined nearly everything in it? gave it greater horsepower and best in class 38 mpg highway... ...advanced headlights... ...and zero gravity seats? yeah, that would be cool. ♪ introducing the completely reimagined nissan altima. it's our most innovative altima ever. nissan. innovation that excites. ♪ humans -- even when we cross our t's and dot our i's, we still run into problems. namely

poor clint eastwood. as a longtime eastwood fan, i must say i'm asking myself what was the romney campaign thinking in booking this guy in the one hour they had to sell the country. plus democrats win a battle over vote blocks. progress there in texas now in ohio. let's hope pennsylvania makes the right decision. >>> finally let me finish with the biggest distortion of this week. that the republicans wanted president obama to succeed. this is "hardball," the place for politics. look! she wears the scarlet markings! out! your kind is not welcome here! nor your odd predilections! miracle whip is tangy and sweet, not odd. [ villager 1 ] it's evil! if you'd try it, you'd know. she speaketh the truth! [ villagers gasping ] reverend? ♪ can i have some? ♪ hey. hey eddie. i brought your stuff. you don't have to do this. yes i do. i want you to keep this. it'd be weird. take care. you too. [ sighs ] so how did it go? he's upset. [ male announcer ] spend less time at gas stations. with best in class fuel economy. i

the official line on clint eastwood -- "judging an american icon like clint eastwood through a political lens does not work. that was a break from all the political speeches. the crowd enjoyed it. he pointed at 23 million americans are not employed. it is time for a change." let's go back to the floor. >> a familiar face for those who watched our "contenders" serious. you have written a lot about campaigns, contentions -- conventions, nomination speeches. what was the count mitt romney was trying to achieve? >> a combination of two recent speeches. the first half and led a lot of people of the george h. w. speech in 1988, when he talked about wanting a kinder and gentler america. governor romney came out with a soothing tone. try to be relaxed and informal. we talk about governor romney needing to humanize himself, and that is what he seemed to try to talk about. raising his five sons, his father and family life. the second half was more aggressive, obviously. it reminded me of the bob dole speech in 1996, which was a strong indictment of bill clinton. there was a line that really stuck

clint eastwood's weird performance.es we're our own worst enemy, i'm afraid, jamal. michael moore who i have always loved, been to every one of his movies, he was the champion of universal healthcare, you know, fahrenheit. 9-11. but he gave an interview with "huffington post" yesterday and he said it is all over. romney is going to win because they're going to have more money so we may as well get used to saying president mitt romney. >> yeah, you know, michael moore has been -- he has made some good movies. he's from michigan like i am. he made the good movie about flint. he's a little bit of a loose cannon. in 2004, he came and did an event for us when he was supposed to be endorsing general clark in new hampshire and talking about general clark's -- and he attacked the president as a draft dodger. it sent our campaign into a whirlwind. >> bill: thank you michael moore. >> thank you for that. so, you want him on your side but you don't necessarily always want him out-front. >> bill: he has to understand, he has nothin