One of the strangest stories to come out of the history of politics in the last thirty or so years is the fact that the 1988 George H. W. Bush campaign briefly considered asking Clint Eastwood to be Bush’s running mate, according to ABC News.
Eastwood, better known as an actor and a film director, was just coming off of a single term as Mayor of Carmel, California. His politics can best be described as libertarian, supporting free market economics, a somewhat non interventionist foreign policy, and supporting things like abortion and same sex marriage.
At the time the Bush campaign was casting about for a running mate, the then Vice President was down 18 points below the presumptive Democratic nominee, then Mass. Gov, Michael Dukakis. It is thus understandable that they were thinking outside the box in looking for a Vice President. They eventually chose Dan Quayle, then a senator from Indiana, and went on to win the election handily.
Eastwood, despite is Hollywood charm, probably would have been a disaster as a Bush 41 running mate. His liberal views on social issues would not have sit well with the evangelicals, a key group whose support Bush needed to win the presidency. Bush himself had to eschew his former pro choice views to make himself acceptable as Ronald Reagan’s running mate in 1988.
Eastwood as a Vice Presidential running mate would have provided a juicy bit of scandal. Around the time of the 1988 election his long term relationship with girlfriend and occasional costar Sondra Locke was ending acrimoniously. The final breakup took place in 1989, with accusations of very bad behavior on Eastwood’s part. The media would surely have found out and would have run with it, likely sinking a Bush-Eastwood campaign. Locke’s version of events was published in 1987, entitled “The Good, The Bad, and the Very Ugly.”
Even if Eastwood had agreed to be Bush’s running mate, had not sunk the subsequent campaign, and had lasted the full Bush term, a number of interesting movies would not have been made. They include “Pink Caddilac,” “White Hunter, Black Heart,” and, most important, “Unforgiven,” Eastwood’s revisionist western.
By passing on Eastwood, Bush made a contribution to both politics and the film industry.
Sources: Clint Eastwood, IMDB
Clint Eastwood as VP? George H.W. Bush Considered It, Devin Dwyer, ABC News, Oct 14, 2011
The Good, the Bad, and the Very Ugly, Sondra Looke, William Morrow, 1997