Really, let the empty chair die...

This is not a good idea:

Conservative media outlets hope to intrude on some of the messaging of the first day of the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte with National Empty Chair Day.

The twitter riff is a show of support for the so-awkward speech delivered by Clint Eastwood, who spoke to an imaginary Barack Obama in an empty chair on the night Mitt Romney accepted the GOP nomination for president. You remember the speech - the one that sucked the momentum from the room after several speakers had delivered moving testimonials to Romney. It's been thoroughly criticized by pundits and politicos, left and right.

@invisibleobama, by the way, has 67,740 followers as of Monday.

So, National Empty Chair Day? The idea is to show how President Barack Obama has been an absent leader when the nation needed him to lead America toward recovery. Fair enough argument to make, but not this way. A pretty basic political rule: Don't remind people of things that make them laugh at your candidate or party. Think Mike Dukakis and the tank.

Peter St. Onge