In Rambling Attack, Eastwood Targets Lawyers at GOP Convention

TAMPA, Fla. — Clint Eastwood did not go ahead and make lawyers' day.

On the biggest night of the Republican National Convention, the Dirty Harry actor took a swipe at the profession during a "surprise" prime-time speech that was unscripted and often rambling.

"See, I never thought it was a good idea for attorneys to be president, anyway," Eastwood said in a dig at President Barack Obama's education at Harvard Law School. The line drew applause and whistles from the crowd inside the convention hall, and the actor continued.

"I think attorneys are so busy — you know they're always taught to argue everything, always weigh everything, weigh both sides," Eastwood said. "They are always devil's advocating this and bifurcating this and bifurcating that. You know all that stuff. But, I think it is maybe time — what do you think — for maybe a businessman. How about that?"

The timing of the comments — arguably the most high-profile mention of the legal profession at the week-long convention — could not have been more bizarre. The convention's next speaker was Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), a lawyer who earned a degree from the University of Miami School of Law.

And Eastwood forgot to note that like Obama, Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney also has a law degree from Harvard.

What's more, Obama, the 44th president, is actually the 25th lawyer to hold the nation's highest office, including Abraham Lincoln and Franklin Roosevelt, according to a Wall Street Journal report from 2008.

Eastwood's speech also included a bit where he talked to an empty chair as if Obama were sitting in it, a type of gag first perfected by comedian Bob Newhart, who used a telephone.

That prompted Newhart to make a lawyer joke of his own on Twitter: "I heard that Clint Eastwood was channeling me at the RNC. My lawyers and I are drafting our lawsuit..."

Comments

[stryker hip replacement lawsuit]

I think attorneys are so busy , I still enjoy a good lawyer joke but this rambling thing by Eastwood is just weird.

[Steven J Fromm]

We are a distracted nation. No one ever talks about the real issues. We got some real problems in this country and to scape goat attorneys probably misses the point here. But I guess it is fun.

[Ken]

Jean Ogilvie - Eastwood has been divorced once & being a lawyer is not a requirement to serve in Congress. Hope this helps....

[Kikis Talarides]

Clint Eastwood is an American icon. I have a picture of him in my law office while accepting one of his Academy awards. I salute him and look forward to his next cinematographic accomplishment.

[JAMES E BAKER]

Since Mr. Obama is not admitted to the bar of any state, he is not authorized to practice law. Thus, he is not a lawyer. He is simply a person with a law degree. The same is true for Michelle Obama.

[Paul Schaafsma]

Let's see . . . hum . . . businessmen presidents . . . hum . . . Herbert Hoover . . . Jimmy Carter . . . George W Bush . . . hum

[Jean Ogilvie]

Clint's comments about lawyers probably reflects his own dealings with lawyers during his 3(?) divorces rather than the actual electorates. Besides the 25 lawyers who have held the presidency, I would venture to serve in congress, a law degree is a requirement. Sooo... now we know what's really wrong with congress. Thanks for the insite, Clint.

[Skip Kaltenheuser]

To RNC rave reviews, Clint Eastwood performed one of Samuel Beckett's earliest and least known works, "Waiting for the Chair".

[Howard Klein]

Eastwood was being humorous. As a lawyer myself, I took no offense. If you don't think he was particularly funny, just say so. No need to fire back at a joke with a rhetorical .44 Magnum.

[Joe Jones]

I have said that the one good thing that came out of the financial crisis is that bankers replaced lawyers as the lowest of the low as far as public opinion is concerned. I guess not. I still enjoy a good lawyer joke but this rambling thing by Eastwood is just weird.

[Adamakis]

2. Obama "… was born on August 4, 1961… Obama entered Harvard Law School in late 1988… In February 1990, his second year at Harvard, he was elected president of the law review, a full-time volunteer position functioning as editor-in-chief and supervising the law review's staff of 80 editors…

While in law school he worked as an associate at the law firms of Sidley & Austin in 1989, where he met his wife, Michelle, and where Newton N. Minow was a managing partner. Minow later would introduce Obama to some of Chicago's top business leaders. In the summer of 1990 he worked at Hopkins & Sutter.

Also during his law school years, Obama spent eight days in Los Angeles taking a national training course on Alinsky methods of organizing. He graduated with a J.D. magna cum laude from Harvard in 1991 and returned to Chicago. The publicity from his election as the first African American president of the Harvard Law Review led to a contract and advance to write a book about race relations.

In an effort to recruit him to their faculty, the University of Chicago Law School provided Obama with a fellowship and an office to work on his book…Dreams from My Father… Obama taught constitutional law at the University of Chicago Law School for twelve years, as a Lecturer for four years (1992–1996), and as a Senior Lecturer for eight years (1996–2004). During this time he taught courses in due process and equal protection, voting rights, and racism and law…

In 1993 Obama joined Davis, Miner, Barnhill & Galland, a 12-attorney law firm specializing in civil rights litigation and neighborhood economic development, where he was an associate for three years from 1993 to 1996, then of counsel from 1996 to 2004…

During the four years Obama worked as a full-time lawyer at the firm, he was involved in 30 cases and accrued 3,723 billable hours… He also served on the board of directors of the Chicago Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law…"~~wikipedia
___________________

If one cannot appreciate the qualitative difference, he may be guilty of
undiscerning equivocation.

[Adamakis]

\ \ "See, I never thought it was a good idea for attorneys to be president, anyway," Eastwood said / /

"could not have been more bizarre"~~Todd Ruger

Mind substance while criticizing, please.

Romney is hardly an "attorney" or "lawyer" compared to Obama.

|| "Eastwood forgot to note that like Obama, Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney also has a law degree from Harvard."||

Romney: "(born March 12, 1947) is an American businessman and politician who is the nominee of the Republican Party for President of the United States in the 2012 election. He was the 70th Governor of Massachusetts (2003–07)…Beginning in 1966, he spent thirty months in France as a Mormon missionary…In 1971, he earned a Bachelor of Arts from Brigham Young University and, in 1975, a joint Juris Doctor and Master of Business Administration from Harvard University.

Romney entered the management consulting industry, and in 1977 secured a position at Bain & Company. Later serving as its chief executive officer, he helped bring the company out of financial crisis. In 1984, he co-founded and led the spin-off Bain Capital, a private equity investment firm…

He ran as the Republican candidate in the 1994 U.S. Senate election in Massachusetts, losing to long-time incumbent Ted Kennedy.
In 1999, he was hired as President and CEO of the Salt Lake Organizing Committee for the 2002 Winter Olympics."

[Kent Scheidegger]

However, Eastwood was in tune with Carl Sandberg:

In the heels of the higgling lawyers, Bob,
Too many slippery ifs and buts and howevers,
Too much hereinbefore provided whereas,
Too many doors to go in and out of.