Clint Eastwood endorses Mitt Romney: “The country needs a boost”

Barack Obama may have George Clooney. But Mitt Romney’s now got Clint Eastwood in his camp.

Eastwood appeared at a Sun Valley fundraiser for Romney on Friday night, telling reporters that he’s behind the former Massachusetts governor because “I think the country needs a boost.”

Romney invited the actor and director up to the microphone at the sundown event at the Sun Valley Resort Lodge. “There is a guy here from the world of acting, who has pursued his dreams in a very unusual way. He stood up to the industry and did things his own way,” Romney said.

“Can I get Clint Eastwood to come up here and say hi to everybody?” the Republican candidate said to applause.

Eastwood explained that he had been working in Massachusetts in the early 2000s while filming “Mystic River,” which he directed, at the same time Romney was running for governor: “I said, ‘God, this guy is too handsome to be governor, but he does look like he could be president.’ As the years have gone by I’m beginning to think even more so that.”

Giving his pitch for Romney, Eastwood said he believed the presumed Republican nominee would restore “a decent tax system” in which people “are not pitted against one another” in terms of who is paying taxes and who isn’t.
“It’s now more important than ever that we need Gov. Romney, and I’m going to be voting for him as I know most of you will be,” Eastwood said. “We’ve got to just spread the word and get the whole country behind this because it’s going to be an exciting election.”

“He just made my day,” Romney said after getting the microphone back. “What a guy.”

maeve.reston@latimes.com

Twitter:@maevereston