Political Irony

“Did you all watch the Republican convention last night? It’s good to see scripted television finally making a comeback.” – Jay Leno

“The Republican National Convention is in full swing in Tampa. Speeches are being made. Hats flown in the air. Everyone gets their own hippie to slap around.” – Craig Ferguson

“Chris Christie gave the keynote address. In his speech he said the word ‘I’ 37 times, ‘Romney’ 7 times, and ‘jobs’ only once. And then there was the 622 times he said the word ‘ham’.” – Conan O’Brien

“Chris Christie was on stage for 16 minutes before he says Romney’s name. He’s on the stage for 30 seconds and he mentions Breyer’s ice cream.” – David Letterman

“Chris Christie’s message was Romney will be the guy to tells America the hard truth. Romney is that guy. And I thought, well, wait a minute, Chris, I’ve got a hard truth for you. How about hopping on the treadmill?” – David Letterman

“Ann Romney spoke last night. I thought she was quite eloquent. Analysts say her role was to show that Mitt has a tender side. And then the Romney family dog gave the rebuttal.” – Jay Leno

“I thought Mitt Romney’s wife Ann did a good job at the Republican convention. During her speech, she said after they got married, she and Mitt lived in a basement. It was a 2-room basement on the French Riviera.” – Conan O’Brien

“Working out has given Paul Ryan phenomenal abs. His abs are so in demand that TMZ is offering a bounty for anyone who can get an in-focus shot.” – Craig Ferguson

“I can’t wait to see the debate between Ryan and Joe Biden. Biden is said to be already trying out different strategies. So far the one that Obama likes is where Biden pretends to have food poisoning and they cancel the debate.” – Craig Ferguson

“You can think outside the box and pick someone who’ll excite people like Sarah Palin or you can play it safe with an honest down-home family man like John Edwards.” – Craig Ferguson

“John McCain was at the convention. He just wandered out on stage in his bathrobe.” – David Letterman

“Hurricane Isaac turned out to be not much of a threat to the Republican convention. But to their credit, the Republicans had a contingency plan. If the hurricane did hit hard, delegates were instructed to evacuate to Mitt Romney’s tax shelter.” – Jay Leno

“Here’s what’s great about America. You can now buy waffle-flavored vodka. See, good things are happening under Obama.” – David Letterman

“The White House is now brewing its own beer. Republicans say the White House beer is actually pretty good. Just don’t drink the Kool-Aid.” – Jay Leno

“Yesterday a medical marijuana group officially endorsed President Obama for president. Doesn’t really help Obama though, because they were just getting around to endorsing him for 2008.” – Conan O’Brien

“According to The New York Times, more than half of President Obama’s Twitter followers are fake. They don’t even exist. Which is actually a good thing because if they did exist there wouldn’t be any jobs for them.” – Jay Leno

© Tom Tomorrow

If you follow the link, you’ll notice that the official version of this comic is abridged for publication. How do you get to see the larger versions, plus added commentary by Tom Tomorrow? By subscribing to “Sparky’s List“. Not only that, but you receive it several days before publication (although we members of the list are sworn to secrecy until the official comic is published).

By the way, I love the reference to Doctor Who (and The Silence) at the end of this comic. It is especially timely since the new season of Doctor Who just started this weekend, right between the two conventions. How quickly will we forget?

Jon Stewart gives the best recap of Clint Eastwood’s speech at the Republican National Convention, and how his performance neatly sums up the whole convention. Sorry this is split into three videos, but they are relatively short and you should watch all three of them:

Eastwood’s performance also elicited a big response on twitter. Here are just a few of the hilarious tweets:

“This is a perfect representation of the campaign: an old white man arguing with an imaginary Barack Obama.” –Jamelle Bouie

“Clint Eastwood demonstrating that seniors may not be prepared to navigate a menu of subsidized private insurance plans.” –Matt Yglesias

“Clint Eastwood’s RNC speech was to imaginary Obama in an empty chair. I’m drafting a DNC speech to imaginary Romney in an empty factory.” –@GeorgeTakei

“Did I just get invisible credit for taking out Bin Laden?” –@InvisibleObama

“I still like Clint Eastwood. A crazy Republican talking to a chair is the least harm a crazy Republican has done in ages.” –Frank Conniff

“The voice telling Clint Eastwood to shut up wasn’t Invisible Obama, it was a producer in his earpiece.” –@misc

“This Clint Eastwood interrogates invisible Obama bit feels like the world’s worst SNL skit.” –@nathanrabin

“Eastwood representing libertarians around the country: pro freedom. anti war. and, more than likely, baked.” –@davidharsanyi

“Only possible Democratic response to Eastwood’s performance is to have William Shatner sing “Rocket Man” as their keynote.”–r@OrrChris

“Clint Eastwood on the phone with Obama now: “It all went according to plan, sir.” –@chrisrockoz

“BREAKING NEWS: Instant poll, InvisibleObama leads Romney by 12 points.” –@KQuark

“I hope they invite Clint Eastwood to speak at the DNC, too.” –@indecision

“Poor Clint. But that’s on Romney’s people. You don’t let an 82 year old alone with your remote control much less your nomination night.” –Will Durst

“Backstage somewhere, Clint Eastwood is yelling at people for almost sitting on Invisible Obama.” –@delrayser

“Biden has the intellect of the Democratic Party,” sneers a man who’s put together 1 complete sentence in the last 10 minutes. –@upworthy

‏”One nation! Under God! Invisible!” –@InvisibleObama

“Had dinner at Clint Eastwood’s house tonight. He never told me which empty chair Obama was sitting in so I ate standing up.æ –@AlanZweibel

“I am going to produce the Clint Eastwood talk show. Every week he talks to big name celebrities who are not there.” –@RealGilbert

“Clint Eastwood is still wondering who the mystery speaker at the Republican convention will be.” –@LOLGOP

“BREAKING: Clint Eastwood spotted in heated argument with luggage cart at Tampa International Airport” –@TheDailyEdge

“I don’t care what critics say, I loved Clint Eastwood’s audition for the sequel to A Beautiful Mind.” –@EugeneMirman

“20 years ago I wanted Clint Eastwood to make my day. Now I just want him to take his pills and be grateful he doesn’t need Medicare.” — Nancy Lee Grahn (of the General Hospital television show)

“I can’t believe I just watched Clint Eastwood turn into somebody’s DRUNK UNCLE HARRY on the stage of the GOP RNC. He humiliated himself.” — Star Jones (lawyer and TV personality)

And finally, Ruben Bolling (of Tom the Dancing Bug) posted this comic brilliantly likening Eastwood’s talk to Calvin and Hobbes, the comic strip where only Calvin can see his live tiger Hobbes:

UPDATE: Roger Ebert’s take on Clint Eastwood’s speech. He’s a bit kinder than most people.

UPDATE 2: In an interview with USA Today, Barack Obama has nothing but kind words for Clint Eastwood, saying:

He is a great actor, and an even better director. I think the last few movies that he’s made have been terrific.

Asked if he was offended by Eastwood’s talk, Obama stayed classy:

One thing about being president or running for president — if you’re easily offended, you should probably choose another profession.

“Beginning Monday is the Republican National Convention in Tampa, Florida. Do you know what the theme is this year? Room Service and Hookers.” – David Letterman

“Tropical Storm Isaac is expected to develop into a hurricane in the next few days. Unfortunately, the Republican National Convention starts in Florida on Monday. The National Weather Service says the storm could reach category 5, which is strong enough to move Mitt Romney’s part to the other side of his head.” – Jimmy Kimmel

“Rest assured, no matter how high those winds get, not a single hair on Romney’s or Paul Ryan’s head will move. They have guaranteed that.” – Jay Leno

“Tampa could be hit by Hurricane Isaac, and they might have to cancel or postpone the Republican National Convention. A hurricane headed directly for the Republicans – and more proof that God is a woman.” – David Letterman

“They’re now worried that Tropical Storm Isaac could hit Florida during next week’s Republican convention. But Florida is ready for it. Thanks to President Obama’s economic policies, many businesses down there are already boarded up.” – Jay Leno

“Actually, Mitt Romney and Hurricane Isaac have something in common. They can both change directions at any moment.” – Jay Leno

“CNN plans to air a 90-minute documentary on Mitt Romney before the Republican National Convention. Yeah, 90 minutes of Mitt Romney. Even Red Bull is like, ‘This is outta my league, bro.'” – Jimmy Fallon

“You know who else is going to be at Tampa for the Republican Convention? Gov. Chris Christie from New Jersey. On his way down there the last they heard from him he was on I-95 at the truck scales.” – David Letterman

“Today Todd Akin was named Democratic Party Employee of the Month.” – David Letterman

“It’s now being reported that Joe Biden will go to the Republican convention to try to cause problems for Mitt Romney. Then after that, he will go to the Democratic convention where he will definitely cause problems for President Obama.” – Jay Leno

“The Obama campaign announced that theirs will be the first political campaign to accept donations via text message. The president is hoping it’s a way to engage grass-roots supporters to give money. A friend of mine tried to donate money and ended up voting for Sanjaya.” – Jimmy Kimmel

“President Obama’s supporters can now text the word ‘GIVE’ to donate up to $50 dollars to his campaign, although it’s frustrating when autocorrect keeps changing it to ‘Fix the economy.'” – Jimmy Fallon

“New research found that people who wake up early are more productive than people who sleep in. Or as Congress put it, ‘Whoa — is it noon already?'” – Jimmy Fallon