Republican National Convention planners picked an interesting time to feature one of the most touching moments of the night, and perhaps week.
About an hour ahead of Mitt Romney's appearance on the RNC stage on Thursday night, a biographic video of the GOP presidential candidate's life aired, eliciting powerful reactions from observers both in the arena and out. The lengthy film included footage of Romney with his father, former Michigan Governor George Romney, and other members of his family. It covered the struggles Romney and his wife, Ann, went through after she was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. It even covered his work with the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City. The sentimental production effectively topped off a weeklong effort to humanize Romney and portray him as a devoted and sensitive man.
But then Clint Eastwood, the "secret guest" of the night, temporarily erased all memory of the film, taking the stage to deliver an entirely bizarre, off-the-cuff performance in which he talked to an "invisible" President Barack Obama seated next to him.