OK- I'm sure if you already are inclining to vote for Romney, you enjoyed this. If you already were inclined to vote for Obama, you disliked this.
(And, if there's anyone who's truly on the fence right now, I'd be curious to hear their opinion on Clint's speech, both on levels of entertainment and for making political points.)
Here's my thought, though- every President gets caricatured. W was portrayed as a shoot-first cowboy, Clinton as a "Slick Willie", George HW Bush as an out-of-touch patrician, Reagan as a doddering fool... it's in America's DNA to mock their leaders. Hell, go back in the past years and see what was said about Teddy Roosevelt , Franklin Delano Roosevelt, or Dwight Eisenhower.
But Obama's always been very hard to caricature. No image has really caught on with the American public the way they have with previous Presidents. In a time where there's about 18 million late night talk shows who are all too willing to mock Sarah Palin, Kim Kardashian, or anyone else... the President's always been treated with kid gloves.
Maybe it's Partisanship- I know some people like David Letterman are big Obama supporters. Or maybe there's a fear that any mockery of President Obama is racist (Spike Lee had no problem calling Clint Eastwood a racist, and there is not one single note about race in anything that was said in the video above)
But Obama-as-Empty-Chair? That's catching on. It's caricaturing a large aspect of his Presidency- the man who makes grandiose promises but isn't there to deliver them. It's a rough attack, but above the belt. It's taken three and a half years into his Presidency, but there's finally a caricature image that is catching on with the American public.
It just took an Oscar-winning director to find the right one.
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