Quick poll: Who was more invisible during the Convention: Me, Sarah Palin, or George W. Bush?
— Invisible Obama (@InvisibleObama) September 2, 2012
Clint Eastwood wasn’t the first to use the schtick:
In 1949, when John Foster Dulles ran for a Senate seat against Herbert Lehman, the former governor from New York, Dulles pulled a similar stunt. This time, though, Dulles made a habit of it. “Dulles traveled with a “prop”–an empty chair he debated in lieu of Lehman,” says [Safire’s political dictionary]. Years later, in 1966, the empty-chair-debate came up again during a race for governor of New York. Again, in Russia this time, an empty chair was left to stand in for Boris Yeltsin who had refused to participate in a televised debate.
Yes, but those empty chairs were there to make the point that the opponent wouldn’t show up. Eastwood’s was far more surreal – a form of da-da contempt.
The Dish 