Herman Cain has been coming under serious fire in recent weeks, but the showy businessman and Republican candidate for president has at least one reason to smile this week: he's got Dirty Harry on his side.
A Hollywood renegade for half a century, Clint Eastwood is a man of strong opinions and a strong jawline. In an industry famous for its liberal leanings, Eastwood has stuck out as a libertarian, advocating limited government interventions in issues both fiscal and social. He's voted Republican in every presidential election since 1952, and with the GOP looking to unseat Barack Obama from the White House, Eastwood has his eye on casting a vote for the renegade of the party to make that happen.
"I love Cain's story," the "J. Edgar" director told the LA Times in a recent interview. "He's a guy who came from nowhere and did well, obviously against heavy odds. He's a doer and a straight-talker, which I don't see enough of from either party."
Eastwood isn't a typical Republican, at least based on today's version on the party. His is a more libertarian view that puts him in places that both Republicans and Democrats can support. He went off on anti-gay marriage protestors in a recent issue of GQ (and had no problem hinting at his protagonist's alleged homosexuality in "J. Edgar"), and sees the financial markets as another place where freedom should reign.
"I'm a big hawk on cutting the deficit. I was against the stimulus thing too," he said. "We shouldn't be bailing out the banks and car companies. If a CEO can't figure out how to make his company profitable, then he shouldn't be the CEO."
For more, click over to the LA Times.
Clarification: We originally reported that Clint has voted for every Republican presidential candidate since 1952. But his dalliance in 1992 with Ross Perot broke his streak. The important thing is that he hasn't voted for a Democrat in the last half-century.
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