2012 GOP convention live, thread #8: Lyin', damn lyin' and Romney-Ryan

Watch live video here and join the conversation as we live blog the 2012 GOP convention.

7:11 PM PT: There's a method to Eastwood's madness, and the GOP audience sure is loving this, but I can't imagine this plays well with people who aren't already for Romney. It almost has a Palinesque feel to it.

7:12 PM PT: Buzzfeed will have 30 GIFs with things in Clint Eastwood's chair tomorrow

' @AntDeRosa via TweetDeck 7:13 PM PT: Clint Eastwood; I hate lawyers and politicians. And now: here's Mitt Romney!!!!

' @chrislhayes via web 7:13 PM PT: Clint Eastwood deserves about 50 million Oscars for this portrayal of the average Republican voter.

' @HunterDK via TweetDeck 7:14 PM PT: Romney aides rapidly cutting Rubio's speech so that Romney doesn't get pushed too late into the nighâ'¦.

' @politicalwire via Twitter for Mac

7:15 PM PT: Andrea Mitchell: "Exceedingly strange." Brian Williams: "Um, uh."

7:16 PM PT: And now Marco Rubio has taken the stage after that weirdness.

7:16 PM PT: What the heck IS this?

' @davidaxelrod via Twitter for iPhone

7:17 PM PT: Eastwood was a brilliant move by the Obama campaign.

7:19 PM PT: LOL:

Eastwood performance will break through by the sheer force of its utter bizareness

' @RichLowry via Mobile Web Perhaps, but if it breaks through, it won't be good news for the GOP. Eastwood's routine wasn't that bad ... if you're a rabid Republican partisan. But if you're not, it came across as petty and weird.

7:20 PM PT: BTW, I don't think anyone is even listening to Marco Rubio now. Instead, just contemplating WTF Romneyland was thinking when they put Eastwood up there to do that.

7:20 PM PT: ...

' @InvisibleObama via web

7:21 PM PT: Clint Eastwood just delivered a hammer blow to Marco Rubio's dream of delivering a memorable speech.

7:23 PM PT: There is a reason conventions are scripted. Clint's empty chair act weirdest convention moment I have ever seen.
— @HowardKurtz via Twitterrific 7:24 PM PT: It doesn't matter what Rubio or Romney says now. All anyone will talk about tomorrow is Eastwood. Holy balls. #GOP2012
— @beardedstoner via web 7:25 PM PT: That screaming you hear backstage is poor Clint, when they told him Mitt wants U.S.  to stay in Afghanistan INDEFINITELY.
— @davidaxelrod via Twitter for iPhone 7:25 PM PT: Mitt Romney's big night, and he got upstaged by an empty chair.
— @KailiJoy via web 7:26 PM PT: Unfortunately, Clint Eastwood really did think Obama was sitting next to him.
— @politicoroger via web 7:27 PM PT: Asked for #eastwood reaction, Romney camp only says - It was ad-libbed
— @Sarah_Boxer via TweetDeck 7:28 PM PT: My question is: why did invisible Obama agree to sit there?
— @timheidecker via Twitter for iPhone Are you kidding? Brilliant decision!

7:29 PM PT: The audience is on its feet for something said by the guy who spoke after the guy who spoke to the chair.

7:29 PM PT: Okay, I'll ask it: Is the Eastwood speech a preview of the kind of thing we should expect from a Romney adminstration?

7:31 PM PT: So, Marco Rubio doesn't seem to give a damn that he's pushing Romney's speech past 10:30 PM ET.

7:33 PM PT (Kaili Joy Gray): New thread here.