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<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial">----- Original Message -----
<DIV style="BACKGROUND: #e4e4e4; font-color: black"><B>From:</B> <A
title=dlj725@hughes.net href="mailto:dlj725@hughes.net">David Johnson</A> </DIV>
<DIV><B>To:</B> <A title=dlj725@hughes.net href="mailto:dlj725@hughes.net">david
johnson</A> </DIV>
<DIV><B>Sent:</B> Sunday, September 02, 2012 10:18 AM</DIV>
<DIV><B>Subject:</B> A Ruling Class opinion about the Eastwood
Speech</DIV></DIV>
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<DIV class="entity_block followable_block type_article_head ">
<P class=user><A href="http://blogs.forbes.com/frederickallen/">Frederick E.
Allen</A><SPAN class=desc>, Forbes Staff</SPAN> </P></DIV>
<H6><SPAN class=divider>|</SPAN></H6>
<H6>9/01/2012 @ 9:37AM <SPAN class=divider>|</SPAN>23,409 views </H6>
<H1>How the Clint Eastwood Fiasco Was Allowed to Happen</H1></HGROUP>
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<P>I <A
href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/frederickallen/2012/08/31/what-does-clint-eastwood-tell-us-about-mitt-romneys-leadership/">wrote
yesterday</A> that I felt that Clint Eastwood’s hijacking of the most crucial
hour of the Mitt Romney presidential campaign, the candidate’s most precious
opportunity to get himself across, with a bizarre, off-color improv speech
directed at an empty chair, ultimately reflected badly on the leadership of the
candidate himself. It simply shouldn’t have been allowed to happen, I wrote.</P>
<P>Now <EM><A
href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/01/us/politics/romney-aides-scratch-their-heads-over-eastwoods-speech.html">The
New York Times</A> </EM>has gone behind the scenes to find out how it happened.
In short, it began with Mitt Romney himself:</P><SPAN
class=position_anchor></SPAN>
<BLOCKQUOTE style="POSITION: relative" class=dimensions_initialized>
<P>Mr. Romney privately invited Mr. Eastwood, of “Dirty Harry” fame, to speak
after the actor had given him a gravelly, full-throated endorsement at a
star-studded fund-raiser at the Sun Valley Resort Lodge in Idaho this summer.
“He just made my day. What a guy,” Mr. Romney joked with his donors that
night, flanked by the fake log columns of the lodge.</P>
<P>Thus began an effort by Mr. Romney’s campaign over several weeks to inject
a Hollywood-style surprise into the highly scripted, tightly controlled
convention where Mr. Romney would formally accept the nomination of the
Republican Party to be president.</P></BLOCKQUOTE><ASIDE class=vestpocket
data-position="4">
<DIV class="box article"><A class=thumb
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class=icon></SPAN><IMG alt=""
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href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/frederickallen/2012/08/31/what-does-clint-eastwood-tell-us-about-mitt-romneys-leadership/">What
Does Clint Eastwood Tell Us About Mitt Romney's Leadership? </A><CITE
class="box_byline clearfix"><A
href="http://blogs.forbes.com/frederickallen/"><IMG class=avatar
alt="Frederick E. Allen"
src="http://blogs-images.forbes.com/assets/images/avatars/fallen_40.jpg">
<STRONG>Frederick E. Allen</STRONG> <SPAN class=desc>Forbes Staff</SPAN>
</A></CITE></DIV></ASIDE>
<P>Then the campaign’s usual discipline was allowed to break down:</P><SPAN
class=position_anchor></SPAN>
<BLOCKQUOTE style="POSITION: relative" class=dimensions_initialized>
<P style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 50px; LEFT: 0px">Romney advisers so trusted Mr.
Eastwood, 82, that unlike with other speakers, they said they did not conduct
rehearsals or insist on a script or communicate guidelines for the style
or format of his remarks.</P></BLOCKQUOTE>
<P>That, it turns out, was a huge gamble. To make matters worse, Eastwood asked
for that chair just before going onstage, apparently with no one high-level
enough nearby to ask him what he wanted it for. Why wasn’t anyone paying
attention? And then he ignored both his allotment of five minutes for speaking,
going on for 12, and a flashing red light telling him his time was up.</P>
<P>The campaign evidently felt a need for a big surprise at the climactic moment
of the campaign and then let it be too much of a surprise. But it’s also true
that, as the <EM>Times </EM>puts it, “the speech was a reminder of how fleeting
a successful political moment can be, and how carefully staged events can be
upset by an unpredictable turn.”</P>
<P>Read the <EM>Times </EM>article <A
href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/01/us/politics/romney-aides-scratch-their-heads-over-eastwoods-speech.html">here</A>.</P></DIV></DIV></DIV></SECTION></DIV></DIV></FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>