#rsrh Clint Eastwood: Romney asked for him personally.

(Via Instapundit) I don’t know about the rest of you, but I find this reassuring.

Eastwood’s appearance at the convention came after a personal request from Romney in August, soon after Eastwood endorsed the former Massachusetts governor at a fundraiser in Sun Valley, Idaho. But it was finalized only in the last week before the convention, along with an agreement to build suspense by keeping it secret until the last moment.

Meanwhile, Romney’s campaign aides asked for details about what Eastwood would say to the convention.

“They vett most of the people, but I told them, ‘You can’t do that with me, because I don’t know what I’m going to say,’” Eastwood recalled.

For two reasons.

• One, it’s demonstrating that Mitt Romney is willing to take a risk to get a bigger win – and, let’s be honest: while Clint Eastwood damaged Barack Obama’s re-election chances with his speech, there was a risk there that he would have fallen flat on his face on national television. I say this not in criticism, but in respect: a willingness to not play it safe can pay dividends.  Certainly right now the Democratic party is wishing right now that Obama had tried to be something other than pedestrian last night.
• Two… look, I deal with various staffers from the Romney campaign all the time. I like them.  They’re good folks: helpful, and they want to win.  But I saw what happened in 2008 when you had a campaign staff that can and do successfully second-guess a candidate, and I am glad to see that Mitt Romney can apparently make a decision stick.

That’s pretty much it.  With one last taunt: man, but those folks in Charlotte really kind of avoided mentioning Clint Eastwood a lot in prime time this week, huh?

Moe Lane