Convention Time - With Some Hollywood Weirdness

I have posted a piece about the Republican convention, with links to good online comments, at the Tutor2u website.  Clint Eastwood's bizarre speech has taken quite a few headlines and it really is a pity that such an iconic figure has so misjudged an occasion that he has briefly become a figure of ridicule.  The best thing Eastwood could have done would have been to arrive on stage, wave to the delirious audience, deliver perhaps a couple of slightly re-jigged movie lines, and retreat to the VIP stand.  The man who derived his movie cult from delivering only the most limited of words when on screen has shown us exactly why that was such a good move all those years ago.

Meanwhile, vice-presidential  nominee Paul Ryan's speech was well received by his audience as expected, but critics pointed out numerous distortions within it - a sign of things to come, as Ryan's legislative record becomes subject to close scrutiny.  As for the nominee himself, the best thing to be said for Mitt Romney is that he has emerged largely intact.  He has not been notably enhanced by the convention, but he has made a steady fist of it which - given some of his earlier gaffes - is no mean feat.  Whether he really does have what it takes to deliver the presidency to the Republicans is what the next three months are, of course, all about.  In the meantime, Obama is about to remind us of his star power when he speaks to a football stadium full of supporters.  It's unlikely he will need the services of a movie star to help him.