Eastwood Is Back in a Campaign Ad for Romney

Clint Eastwood is back on the Republican stage. But this time there's a script, a 30-second time limit and none of the potential tripwires of live television.

Mr. Eastwood, whose long and sometimes incoherent monologue at the Republican National Convention in August left many ardent Republicans cheering but others dumbfounded, is the star of a new commercial from the “super PAC” American Crossroads.

But if he was all jokes in Tampa, Fla., Mr. Eastwood is nothing but serious in this new advertisement, in which he indicts President Obama's term as a failure and urges people to vote for Mitt Romney.

“Obama's second term would be a rerun of the first, and our country just couldn't survive that,” he says. “We need someone who could turn it around fast, and that man is Mitt Romney. There's no t much time left, and the future of our country is at stake.”

Steven Law, the president of American Crossroads, said he had heard before the convention that Mr. Eastwood might be interested in starring in an ad. But he said he did not actually pursue the acclaimed director and actor until after his performance in Tampa.

“I think what struck us in Tampa was not so much what the media talked about,” Mr. Law said. “But in his remarks, he delivered some really powerful lines about democracy, things like: ‘You own this country. The politicians work for you.' ”

After some testing, Crossroads found that potential audiences, who are often wary of celebrity endorsements, still appreciated Mr. Eastwood as an American icon and liked the idea of his appearance in the ad as long as it did not seem overdone. So while Mr. Eastwood narrates the entire ad, he appears on camera only at the very end.

Mr. Eastwood, in an e-mailed statement, explained his moti ves. “I did the ad because I'm concerned for our country,” he said. “I really believe Mitt Romney is the kind of leader we need right now. He's an experienced businessman, and he knows how to work with people to fix problems. It's time to give someone else a chance to fix our country.”

The ad starts running Wednesday in seven states: Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Nevada, New Hampshire, Ohio and Virginia.