Eastwood defends weird speech

Los Angeles - Veteran actor and director Clint Eastwood on Friday defended his curious speech at the Republican convention earlier in the week, saying that the idea of addressing US President Barak Obama via an empty chair was a spontaneous one designed to portray the Democratic leader as "the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people".

"There was a stool there, and some fella kept asking me if I wanted to sit down," Eastwood 82, told his local newspaper, the Carmel Pine Cone.

"When I saw the stool sitting there, it gave me the idea. I'll just put the stool out there and I'll talk to Mr Obama and ask him why he didn't keep all of the promises he made to everybody."

The rambling speech prompted a huge reaction on the internet and even overshadowed the acceptance speech of Republican candidate Mitt Romney. But Eastwood said that Romney and his running mate Paul Ryan had congratulated him afterward.

Eastwood claimed that his speech had three points: "That not everybody in Hollywood is on the left, that Obama has broken a lot of the promises he made when he took office, and that the people should feel free to get rid of any politician who's not doing a good job," Eastwood said.

"But I didn't make up my mind exactly what I was going to say until I said it."

"President Obama is the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people," Eastwood said.

"Romney and Ryan would do a much better job running the country, and that's what everybody needs to know. I may have irritated a lot of the lefties, but I was aiming for people in the middle."