Safely back in Pebble Beach after last week's disastrous foray into political improv, Clint Eastwood gave his first interview about the speech to the Carmel Pine Cone. His take is that it was a success precisely because of his improvising. The amazing thing is just how willing Mitt Romney's people were to let former Carmel, California, mayor Eastwood improvise his speech to the Republican National Convention so freely -- a move they regretted later. He told the campaign straight up that he didn't know what would come out of his mouth. "They vett most of the people, but I told them, ‘You can’t do that with me, because I don’t know what I’m going to say,' " Eastwood told the Pine Cone's Paul Miller. And the empty chair gag? Eastwood came up with that one just a few minutes before showtime:

“I got to the convention site just 15 or 20 minutes before I was scheduled to go on,” he said. “That was fine, because everything was very well organized.”

After a quick trip through airport-style security, he was taken to a Green Room, where Archbishop Dolan of New York sought him out to say hello. Then he was taken backstage to wait for his cue. And that was when inspiration struck.

“There was a stool there, and some fella kept asking me if I wanted to sit down,” Eastwood said. “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 whole thing is well worth a read over at the Pine Cone.

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Adam Martin