Eastwood Was Wrong in More Ways than One

by Dee Newman

Do you remember what Clint Eastwood said about President Obama (a trained Harvard lawyer,  constitutional law scholar and former law professor) during his faltering and stammering monologue at the Republican National Convention? Here's a reminder:

“See, I never thought it was a good idea for attorneys to be the president, anyway. . . [interrupted by applause from convention delegates] . . . I think attorneys are so busy – you know they’re always taught to argue everything, and always weigh everything, weigh both sides.  They are always devil’s advocating this and bifurcating this and bifurcating that, you know, all that stuff.”

Well, as we know, Mr. Eastwood was wrong about inferring that Mr. Romney is not a trained Harvard lawyer, he is. But, he was correct in his essential point – that Mr. Romney unlike President Obama thinks more like a businessman than a lawyer.

A good lawyer like our President is able to analyze, organize and present coherent, persuasive and reasoned positions; they are able to think independently and critically, analyzing the utility and effectiveness of an argument; and they are able to choose and devise strategies for setting goals that can be accomplished.

Mr. Eastwood was also wrong about lawyers not making good Presidents. More than half of our presidents have been lawyers, including some of our nation’s best: Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln and Franklin Delano Roosevelt just to name three.

You would think, given recent history of those presidents who were former GOP businessmen (comprising the likes of Harding, Hoover and George W. Bush) that a man of Eastwood’s intellect would know that having another Republican businessman in the Oval Office might prove disastrous.