Clint Eastwood under fire for speech addressed to empty chair `Obama`

London: Clint Eastwood has landed himself in hot soup for launching a bizarre rambling rant about Barack Obama live on stage.

The 82-year-old actor’s strange monologue was directed at an invisible Obama as he lambasted an empty chair at the Republicans National Convention. It prompted the White House to retaliate on Twitter by posting a photo of Obama in his Presidential chair, with the caption “This seat’s taken”. Eastwood’s awkward and long-winded routine at the convention in Tampa, Florida, even inspired the Twitter tag #eastwooding. His speech was the warm-up act for Republican candidate Mitt Romney – but he overran, causing the Mormon tycoon to hastily cut and rewrite his much anticipated address. During his speech, Eastwood rebuked the chair for its broken promises and for invading Afghanistan — even though it was his Republican predecessor George W Bush who ordered US troops into the country. “So Mr President, how do you handle promises you’ve made when you were running for election, and how do you handle them?” the Sun quoted him as saying. “I think Mr Romney asked the only sensible question, you know, he says, ‘Why are you giving the date out now? Why don``t you just bring them home tomorrow morning?. “When somebody doesn``t do the job, you gotta let them go,” he said. In his distinctive gravel-voiced tone, the ‘Million Dollar baby’ star also mentioned Oprah Winfrey, the Guantanamo prison and the Iraq War, miming a response to the chair with the puzzling refrain. “I can’t do that to myself,” he said. In a further moment of awkwardness, he suggested lawyers should not become presidents. He concluded the strange speech with perhaps his most famous catch line, saying “Go ahead”, to which the crowd boomed “Make my day.” Following Eastwood’s spiel, Romney addressed the Republican faithful vowing to create jobs, champion business and beat Obama. ANI