the clint eastwood empty chair speech.was a chance for republicans to make their case to the american people. largely they hit their marks. we wanted to take a closer look at a few of the bigger claims so we had our tom foreman check the facts. >> hey, randi, let's take a look at fave of fast five checks from tampa. gop roared with a claim that president obama is trying to turn america into a welfare state. take it away rick santorum. >> this summer he showed us once again he believes in government handouts and dependency by waving the work requirement for wealthy? >> really? not really. the white house eased some regulations for some states trying to find out better ways to get people on welfare working. on the wall of their convention the republicans had a giant display showing the soaring national debt. no one is more sore about it than kentucky senator rand paul. >> president obama's administration will add nearly $6 trillion to our national debt in just one term, and i'm hoping it's just one term. >> that's massive. c

.> reporter: eastwood also had the invisible mr. obama uttering bamaenities. >> 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 astwoos but ignored the red light to wrap up and spoke for ghice as long. lonraffic on twitter about the actor's bizarre speech spiked, the romney campaign rushed out a the shatement, even as their t,ndidate was delivering his isceptance 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 quicident in his white house chair with the caption "this "tt'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 creativi

a little eastwooding of our own. thanks, jenna. >> enjoy. >>> today a brand new exhibit opened at the zoo called american trails.

who's going to tell clint eastwood you have to practice this?n his buzz feed reports, the idea to bring out an empty chair came from the man himself, clint eastwood, shortly before going onstage. he said, get me that chair. a prop aide fetched him the chair without asking any questions. you're not going to ask clint eastwood what he's going to do with an empty chair. the aide assumed he was going to sit down on it, maybe because he's 82 years old. despite the behind the scenes blame game going on, the romney campaign insists their candidate enjoyed eastwood's performance. an aide tells the "new york times," mitt romney was laughing backstage. ann romney, who looks uncomfortable throughout the speech, called the routine unique. >> seemed to be surprised by the romney -- by clint eastwood's performance as the camera took a cut-away of you. >> i didn't know it was coming. >> romney strategist stuart stevens told reporters eastwood did not have prepared remarks. listen, the guy went out and did what actors do. a little improv. if someone wants to sa

clint eastwood's chair, everybody. (cheers and applause) clint eastwood's chair! oh, oh-- chair-ryan 2012. [bleep] it's too late. we'll be right back. (cheers and applause) we asked over 3,000 doctors to review 5-hour energy and what they said is amazing. over 73 percent who reviewed 5-hour energy said they would recommend a low calorie energy supplement to their healthy patients who use energy supplements. seventy-three percent. 5-hour energy has four calories and it's used over nine million times a week. is 5-hour energy right for you? ask yodoctor. we already asked 3,000. >> welcome back, everybody. thank you so much. nation, america lost an icon last week. the first man to walk on the moon, neil armstrong. and remembrances have been pouring in like money pouring out of nasa's budget. (laughter) >> he was an american hero and a space pioneer. >> armstrong rewrote history. >> he was the epitome of cool under pressure. >> a man who made his country believe that with enough know how we could do anything. >> i want to give a shoutout to astronaut neil armstrong. th

i can tell him to do that to himself >>> eastwood was scheduled to speak for five minutes but ignoredike to wrap up and spoke twice as long as traffic on twitter about the bizarre speech spike the romney campaign put out a statement even as the candidate that delivered his acceptance speech kedging up and i can't like clint eastwood throw a political lands does not work. the crowd enjoyed it. the obama campaign tweeted a picture with the president in his white house chair with the caption " this seat taken " a morning after mitt romney's big moment eastwood was the top trendy topic on googled. one official told john dickerson that east would was not scripted because they did not want to rain his creativity but a romney adviser and acknowledged was a distraction another republican official put it is clint eastwood if elvis wants to sing along songs you turn off his mind? anthony mason cbs news >>> a winery's says it makes its wind by honor courage and bravery. juliette goodrich with more >>> meet josh lane >>> i've done three deployments >>> former marine turned winemaker a tasty did n

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's chair, everybody. (cheers and applause) clint eastwood's chair! oh, oh-- chair-ryan 2012. [bleep] it's too late. we'll be right back. (cheers and applause) >> welcome back, everybody. thank you so much. nation, america lost an icon last week. the first man to walk on the moon, neil armstrong. and remembrances have been pouring in like money pouring out of nasa's budget. (laughter) >> he was an american hero and a space pioneer. >> armstrong rewrote history. >> he was the epitome of cool under pressure. >> a man who made his country believe that with enough know how we could do anything. >> i want to give a shoutout to astronaut neil armstrong. thank you for letting us all dream of going where no man has gone before. (laughter) >> yes, you can always count on geraldo rivera to find just the right words from-- the star trek opening credits. well, nation-- i would like to ad my voice to these tributes and say, neil armstrong, i don't know. no, no, hear me out. i know i'm to the going to win any space medals for this but may i remind you what he said

they did that. >> clint eastwood made the media's day. and i did talk to romney advisers, david drucker, said they didn't know what eastwood was going to do. a topistra strategist said he tt it played on the whole, in america's living room, we don't know. doesn't care how it played in the green room, meaning the fact that most people in the press panned it. >> face it, who cares what we think? we're not the majority of voters. who i found interesting is of course as journalists covering these conventions, what do we always complain about? things are so scripted, everything's so predictable. >> right. >> the minute something -- minute something happens that's not scripted and not predictable, oh, my god, how could they allow this to happen? how could they do something so unscripted and not control the message. here's what i found interesting, while i think they could have done without this, what i think is important is how did it play at home. and for the 50-plus voter in the heartland, out all over the country, i was checking with my fami

clint eastwood's chair, everybody. (cheers and applause) clint eastwood's chair! oh, oh-- chair-ryan 2012. [bleep] it's too late. we'll be right back. (cheers and applause) [ male announcer ] drive a car filled with as much advanced technology as the world around it. with the available lexus enform app suite, you can use opentable to make restaurant reservations. during the golden opportunity sales event, get great values on some of our newest models. this is the pursuit of perfection. ♪ swing music plays ♪ >> welcome back, everybody. thank you so much. nation, america lost an icon last week. the first man to walk on the moon, neil armstrong. and remembrances have been pouring in like money pouring out of nasa's budget. (laughter) >> he was an american hero and a space pioneer. >> armstrong rewrote history. >> he was the epitome of cool under pressure. >> a man who made his country believe that with enough know how we could do anything. >> i want to give a shoutout to astronaut neil armstrong. thank you for letting us all dream of going where no man has gone befor

and that's why clint eastwood comes in. and that is where clint eastwood has done a huge favor to us all. because the republican party's irrationality that they have worked so hard at the convention trying to conceal was unleashed in a 12 minute improvised avant-garde performance of one angry men. eastwood finally revealed the cognitive dissonance that is the beating heart and soul and fiction of this party. he's so far gone they are hammering obama for things bush did. and romney is. >> but you thought the war in afghanistan was-- was okay, i mean you thought that was something that was worth doing. we didn't check check with the russians to see how they did there for the ten years, but-- . >> jon: oh, snap. you really gave it to the guy who didn't get us into that war. (laughter) >> i never thought it was a good idea for attorneys to be president anyway. >> jon: yeah, take that harvard lauer barack obama, you'll never be the man harvard lawyer mitt romney is. so we-- we oh clint eastwood a debt of thanks. not only because

eastwood immediately started trending on twitter.t romney's top aides acknowledged they didn't know what eastwood would say, unheard of at a national political convention, where speakers are timed to the second. >> i know what you're thinking. >> reporter: now eastwood has tony told his hometown newspaper they vet 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. he said the idea of interviewing an imaginary president obama in an empty chair came at the last moment when a stagehand kept asking him if he wanted to sit down. inspiration struck as he was walking out on stage, telling the paper, "when i saw the stool sitting there, it gave me the idea. i'll just put the stool out, there and i'll talk to mr. obama and ask him why he didn't keep all of the promises he made to everybody." >> so mr. president, how do you handle -- how do you handle promises that you have made? >> reporter: a peer survey cited eastwood's speech as the republican convention's top highlight, beating out mi

eastwood pretended was mr. obama.internet react the quickly and newly formed twitter handle invisible obama gained over 40,000 followers overnight. and even visible obama got in on the act tweeting a picture of himself in a chair. eastwood has become the creative outlet for those who are tired of tea partying. here to join us john fugelsang it's good to see you. >> i would love to say what a pleasure was to drag you and that excellent panel down to my level every night this week. >> eliot: it was great. >> it was great. i had a riot. al gore, too bad he had something to say but it was really very entertaining. >> eliot: give us your take on clint eastwood. is this a guy off the rails? even his hair was not combed rights. >> this is what happened when you're surrounded by yemen. clint did not have to submit a script. he didn't have a script. i thought it was charming to be honest with you. he got what he was doing. i thought he was funny. he was the only loose performer we saw the entire week. he was very, very relaxed

to talk about eastwood, too. talk about records. because i asked rahm emanuel, did you see the democrats run very fast from the sense of are you better off now than four years ago. that's where mitt romney wants to keep this rails. race. >> well, absolutely he does. and i think the speech that we ought to be talking about as well, is in jackson hole, wyoming, where ben bernanke said we're probably going to have to stimulate the economy again, because this unemployment situation is a lot more grave than it's getting the kind of attention that it does. however, to respond to the speaker, even the lead editorial in "the wall street journal" says, by not explaining his agenda, he left an opening for the democrats, speaking of romney, said our point is, not so much to throw cold water on tampa, the afterglow, so much as to point out that sooner or later romney and ryan are going to have to make the case for their policies. my own impression is, david, that out in the country, if anyone's looking to give voice to the f

so somebody knew. >> yeah, somebody, clint eastwood. at the very last minute we learned this afternoon in our reporting clint eastwood asked a prop person just a couple minutes before he went on stage, could you get me a chair? suddenly, there was a chair on stage. i really do think that people were taking in a completely live improvised show the likes of which we have never seen at any presidential convention. >> so as far as you've been able to find out, there was no practice and nobody actually like vetted a speech, asked eastwood to -- >> what we do know is they vetted every other speech. whether it was some hr person from the massachusetts governor's office or rick santorum, line by line. but there was no line by line to go through with eastwood. he was making it up as he went along. >> i want to play a little more of mr. eastwood's speech or performance, whatever you call it. >> i know even people in your own party are very disappointed you didn't close gitmo. i thought -- well, i think closing gitmo, why close that, we spent so m

and although ann romney said she appreciated eastwood's support, later she said she wished more people had seen this video about the romney family. >> i hate to say it, but often, i had more than five sons. i had six sons. >> how ya doing, knucklesnorts! >> reporter: the video had to be moved to a less prime hour to make room for clint eastwood. >> jon karl joins us from washington. the romney campaign is putting on a good face but what is the real feeling behind the scenes about eastwood's performance last night? >> reporter: well, one leading indicator of this is i've talked to a number of top romney aides, asked them about this and what they really wanted me to know was they had nothing to do with the idea, in some cases didn't know he was doing this. but they told us that romney was backstage watching this performance and they claim he was laughing during the performance and enjoying it, but it is telling that nobody seems to want to take ownership of the idea to invite him out there in the first place. >> failure has a million orphans or whatever the saying is. >>> while the camer

eastwood for coming. this is not about clint eastwood. the romney campaign blowing their biggest moment in the campaign so far. the biggest audience they will ever have to present their unrebutted best case for their campaign. if nobody gets fired for this, what does that say about who is in charge over there? whoa! don't want you spilling that hot latte on my driver's seat. this is my car. who are you? i'm the second owner. the what? i will own this car after you. look, i'm not telling you how to drive our car. our car? if you're gonna have a latte in the car, keep a lid on it. it's a cappuccino. still needs a lid. [ male announcer ] the highest-quality cars plus an exceptional certified pre-owned program. good news for the second owner. take care of my car! [ male announcer ] experience the summer of audi event by september 4th with 1.9% apr for 60 months and a complimentary first month's payment on certified pre-owned audi models. when i think of aspirin, i really think of it as that bottle in the back of my parents' medicine cabinet.

eastwooding immediately started trending on twitter.t romney's aides acknowledged they didn't know what eastwood would say, unheard of at a national political convention where speakers are timed to the second. now eastwood has told his hometown newspaper "the caramel pine cone" they vet most of the people. i told them you can't do that with me because i don't know what i'm going to say. he said the idea of interviewing an imaginary president obama in an empty chair came at the last moment when a stage hand asked him if he wanted to sit down. inspiration struck as he was walking out on stage, telling the paper "when i saw the stool sitting there, it gave me the idea. i'll just put the stool out there and i'll talk to mr. obama and ask him why he didn't keep all of the promises he made to everybody." >> oh, mr. president, how do you handle -- how do you handle promise that is you've made? >> reporter: a week later people responded to a pew survey cited eastwood's speech as the republican convention's top highlight, beating out mitt romney

. >>> and eastwooding. fresh off his performance at the republican convention, movie icon clint eastwood has inspired a new phenomenon, and it's a big hit online today, saturday, september 1st, 2012. captions paid for by nbc-universal television >>> good morning, everyone. welcome to "today" on a saturday morning. i'm lester holt. >> and i'm jenna wolfe. and empty chairs across the country have never been so happy before, ever. i mean, empty chairs everywhere are finally getting their time in the spotlight wait until the chair says something. you know who else was almost sitting next to an empty chair? >> here we go. >> this girl right here. i don't ever want to say anything bad about you because i adore you. >> want me to tell everyone was happened? >> go ahead. >> my alarm didn't go off. i remember specifically setting it for 4:15. >> was it a.m. or p.m.? remember the "seinfeld" debate? up or down? >> i tweeted out my predicament and one response said "i would thin that a big-time network" would have some

after that clint eastwood speech, the newest online craze is eastwooding. people capturing themselves chastising empty chairs. even pets are getting into the act now. there's a twitter account for that chair. some 62,000 followers. >> amazing. i think how hard it is to get followers. then, i'm like, wait a sec. an empty chair is getting 62,000. i'm kind of losing. >>> maybe that will inspire ron claiborne to get a twitter account. >> maybe, yeah. i won't argue with a chair. >> do some news for us. >> okay, dan and bianna. everyone out there. breaking news out of nevada. police in that state issuing an amber alert for a teenager snatched from her home in broad daylight. a multistate search is under way. authorities fear her abductors may be taking her to another state. 17-year-old melissa duran was abducted from her home on friday. now, kidnappers are holding her for ransom. >> she's a great girl. i don't know. she's doing her schoolwork and stuff and working. so, i have no idea who would do this or why. >> reporter: police say two men knocked on the door of