As the race pitting President Obama against Mitt Romney officially begins, campaign coverage gains superficiality and confusion. The entertainment extravaganzas of the respective party conventions now include a film star having an incoherent conversation with an empty chair.

Charlie Riedel

For African-American delegates at the DNC this week, feelings about Bill Clinton can be a bit complicated.As the still popular Clinton prepares to take the stage for a highly anticipated speech, more than a few black attendees say it’s difficult to forget the harsh and often ugly language of the 2008 campaign, which featured cutting and divisive comments directed towards Barack Obama from Clinton himself as the current president battled Hillary Clinton for the Democratic nomination.

Mark Wilson / Getty Images

Clint Eastwood’s endorsement of Mitt Romney is the gift that keeps on giving. On Friday morning last week, the day after Clint addressed the Republican National Convention, he told me, “I’m not an extrovert, but the crowd was so welcoming and warm.

Eric Draper / Mitt Romney 2012

Liberals and the mainstream media are having a field day over Clint Eastwood’s appearance at the Republican National Convention, mocking it ceaselessly on cable. They’re using it just like the storm beforehand—doing whatever it takes to distract from Mitt Romney and the message he wants to convey.

Jason Reed / Reuters

Those rip-roaring Romney delegates sure know how to pump up a room.On the final night of the Republican convention, the party faithful jammed into the Tampa Bay Times Forum, whooping and hollering about Clint, Rubio, and Romney like teenage girls at a Justin Bieber concert.

Jewel Samad, AFP / Getty Images

The verdicts were mediocre. One called him “a comfortable and accessible figure, if hardly electric.” I think Mitt fizzled.His speech was the climax of a festival of lies. Typical was the self-proclaimed Catholic true believer Paul Ryan.

In a small but telling episode, Republican activists reportedly blocked a plan for a surprise speech outside the party’s convention—by a hologram of Ronald Reagan. They feared the projection would overshadow living candidate Mitt Romney’s speech accepting the GOP nomination.

Another Actor Vs. ObamaStep aside, Clint Eastwood: you’re not the only Hollywood legend with a conservative political opinion to share. At a sitdown with Beast TV, Jon Voight had some choice words about the media’s convention coverage and took on Daily Beast columnist Michelle Goldberg after she said Republicans had ”fled the reality-based community.

Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images

When Mitt Romney used James Brown’s 1985 Grammy-nominated anthem “Living in America” as his victory-lap song after his acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention last night, two thoughts ran parallel through my mind like twin herds of charging elephants: Either I (and virtually every other black in the country) have misread Republicans’ commitment to diversity—in spite of the fact that this year’s gathering is still virtually the same “sea of white faces” Colin Powell referenced back in 1992— or this anomaly serves as proof positive that politicians will plumb any depths in search of a victory.

Mark Wilson

The ‘Movie Tradesman’ Weighs In On ‘Hot Doggin’ It’s worth reading up on outdated slang for this one. Addressing the crowd after he came on stage, Eastwood noted that in Hollywood, he's a rarity for being a conservative—and a reticent one, at that.

Dave Martin / AP Photo

As delegates cheered Mitt Romney inside the Republican National Convention on Thursday night, 500 protesters at a downtown Tampa park eight blocks away crowned an effigy of the presidential nominee “king of the one percent.”The “Romination Coronation GOP Send Off” brought together various groups that had demonstrated throughout the week.

Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images

So Clint Eastwood blew it. Wrong message. Bad tone. Stylistically awkward. The Academy Award winner gave a bumbling, even unprofessional, presentation.With the Republican National Convention hoping for good, Eastwood brought the bad and the ugly.

BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI

Mitt Accepts GOP Nomination RomNom complete! Mitt Romney accepted the GOP's nomination for president on the final night of the Republican National Convention, attacking the president and discussing his family in his speech.

Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images

Speaking to Invisible Obama last night, in a performance that seemed to have been written by Timothy Leary and performed by Cheech & Chong, Clint Eastwood  was able to drive home to tens of millions of viewers the central message of this year's Republican National Convention: We Are Delusional and Detached from Reality.

Charles Dharapak / AP Photo

The Romney campaign seems unable to make up its mind. In choosing Paul Ryan three weeks ago, it defined the presidential race as a referendum on the American welfare state.Ryan’s core claim is that unless America radically downsizes the domestic functions of the federal government, the country will end up not only broke, but enslaved.