Bill Maher Gives Clint Eastwood ‘Props’ For His RNC Speech [Video]

Actor/director Clint Eastwood received some unlikely support for his strange anti-Obama monologue at the Republican National Convention: Ultra liberal Bill Maher, a huge Obama fan who gave the president a $1 million campaign contribution.

Bill Maher registered disagreement with the conventional wisdom about the Eastwood speech and instead defended Eastwood.

On his HBO show last night, Maher noted that everyone always complains that political conventions are too scripted and overproduced, and that Eastwood — who was anything but scripted and rehearsed — deserved props for his freestyle presentation.

“As a performer, as a stand-up comedian for 30 years who knows how hard it is to get laughs, excuse me, he went up there … without a net, on a tightrope. There was no teleprompter. He did a bit with just an empty chair and killed. He committed to it, it was consistent, and it worked.”

Predictably, none of the panelists agreed with the host. Bill Maher fans will be relieved to know, however, that he also referred to Eastwood as an “idiot” and an “a-hole” for his political beliefs.

Eastwood has generally been a libertarian rather than an advocate for either of the two major political parties, but evidently given the awful economic conditions facing this country, he has thrown his support to Mitt Romney, the GOP presidential nominee. Eastwood was the non-partisan mayor of Carmel, California, from 1986 to 1988.

Watch Bill Maher defend Clint Eastwood’s speech at the Republican National Convention:

Do you think Bill Maher has a point about Clint Eastwood’s speech or do feel that Eastwood’s presentation was cringeworthy?