In life, there are many ways to know when you’ve “made it.”

Mostly it comes with success. Be it success in business or success in politics success is a measure of “making it.”

With success often comes the trappings of success. A nice home, a nice car or maybe the ability to travel at will without caring the cost.

Those are tangible examples of having “made it” but, there are other ways of knowing.

In the world of pop culture, one can also “make it” and not all examples are good.

For some unknown reason, many pop culture icons strive to “make it” through adverse behavior and there are a slew of really bad celebrity mug shots out there proving the point.

Still others “make it” by proving Darwin was right. Case in point:

Timothy Treadwell believe he was one with grizzly bears. A bear enthusiast for years, he went to live with the beasts in Katmai National Park, Alaska in 1990. After 13 years, the Grizzly Manand his girlfriend, Amie Huguenard, who shared his belief that they, and the grizzlies, were on the same page, discovered they were, in fact…Not.

They were killed and mostly eaten by their neighbors gaining them both a Darwin Award.

Treadwell and Huguenard “made it” as urban legends.

Last week, a very unusual occurrence of “making it” occurred. It was not so unusual that this man “made it” but that he, “made it”…AGAIN.

As a young man, Clint Eastwood “made it” in television as Rowdy Yates on Rawhide. That would have been enough for most but, not for Eastwood.

He left Rawhide to make “Spaghetti Westerns,” low budget western movies filmed in Italy. It has been said that one could take the sum total of all of Eastwood’s Spaghetti Westerns and not have but 20 minutes of dialogue delivered by the star. True enough but, his mere presence on the screen was enough, combined with a squinty glare and a gravely voice that could open a walnut from 50 paces, to cement his “making it” in the genre.

Not good enough for Clint Eastwood. He went to star in a series of Dirty Harry movies delivering some of the most well-known movie lines in history.

Eastwood was just getting started “making it.”

As a director, and producer, Clint Eastwood “made it” again and again.

As a musician, Eastwood “made it” having his scores underscore many movies.

Eastwood “made it” in business too…not just in owning his own motion picture production office and making one great independent film after another but, drop by the Hog’s Breath Inn in Carmel California sometime for a Dirty Harry burger. That’s Eastwood’s place and maybe, just maybe, you’ll recognize the guy at the piano from time to time.

Naturally, that wasn’t enough “making it” for Clint who “made it” again when he became the Mayor of Carmel.

Well, you get the idea. Clint Eastwood has “made it” and “made it” and “made it again and again.

Last week, at the tender age of 82, Clint Eastwood “made it” again.

Most conservatives think Eastwood, in a somewhat rambling speech at the podium, stuck his thumb in Obama’s eye by delivering lines like:

“What do you want me to tell Romney? I can’t tell him to do that. I can’t tell him to do that to himself.”

“Of course we all know Biden is the intellect of the Democratic party. Kind of a grin with a body behind it.”

“We — we own this country. We — we own it. It is not you owning it, and not politicians owning it. Politicians are employees of ours.”

And…

“When somebody does not do the job, we got to let them go.”

I’m here to tell you that sticking his thumb in Obama’s eye wasn’t the half of it.

Clint Eastwood also stuck his thumb in Hollywood’s eye. The Hollywood elite have been in Obama’s pocket since 2008 and in the liberal’s pockets for decades. Eastwood gave them all a “neener neener” and he let it be known that there ARE conservatives in La La Land.

Clint also stuck his thumb squarely in the eye of the Republican Establishment.

Here is a guy, asked to fly 3000 miles to deliver a 5 minute speech. Not Mr. Eastwood. HE went 12 minutes pushing back both Marco Rubio’s speech and that of the Nominee, Mitt Romney but even THAT wasn’t enough for Eastwood.

In the world of political conventions, EVERYTHING is scripted and choreographed. EVERYTHING.

The toilets flush in unison.

Speakers test the venue. Practice at the podium. They know where to walk, exactly where to stand and towards whom they should look and when.

And then there’s Clint.

No prompter. No walk-through. No pre-submitted, pre approved script.

Just Clint Eastwood and…An empty chair.

“What do you want me to tell Romney? I can’t tell him to do that. I can’t tell him to do that to himself.”

EVERYBODY knew EXACTLY what he meant. EVERYBODY!!!

Cardinal Timothy Dolan got it.

Clint didn’t SAY it but…HE SAID IT WITHOUT SAYING IT AND IN THE WORLD OF CHOREOGRAPHED TOILET FLUSHING…NOT EVEN SAYING IT WITHOUT SAYING IT WOULD HAVE BEEN APPROVED OF.

For Clint Eastwood, “making it” all over again, at the age of 82, had nothing to do with what he said. It had nothing to do with how he said it.

It had EVERYTHING to do with who he said it to.

An empty chair.

Clint Eastwood “Made it” by having his name turned into a verb.

Tebowing. We all know what that is.

Getting Borked.

We know that one too.

From here on out, doing anything from talking to or featuring an empty chair will be known as…

Eastwooding.

One thing is clear.

“The Good, The Bad and The Ugly” liberals, with a “Fist Full Of Dollars” and maybe, “For a Few Dollars More”  can deride Eastwood “Every Which Way but Loose.” They can even use “Magnum Force” to put him “In the Line of Fire” but ultimately, they will be “Unforgiven” for running “The Gauntlet.”

Eastwood was dead on target and the effect of being Eastwooded  clearly made a “Sudden Impact.”

The very next morning, paper-thin skinned Obama fired off a tweet with a photo of the back of his head sitting in a chair and the words, “This seat’s taken.”

Somewhere, on a ranch outside Carmel, Eastwood, over a steak he grilled just by looking at it must be thinking…

“Ever notice how you come across somebody once in a while, that you shouldn’t have *#%ked with? That’s me.”

Once an icon always an icon.

Once?

We’re talking about Clint Eastwood here.

Craig Andresen

The National Patriot

Weekend Edition 9-2-12