Remember all those nasty things conservatives were saying about Clint Eastwood after his "Halftime in America" commercial at the Super Bowl, which appeared to be a sop to Obama?

You may now start walking back your criticisms.

Reuters:

Mitt Romney must be feeling lucky, punk.

The Republican presidential candidate got a surprise boost Friday night when the star of "Dirty Harry," Academy Award winning actor and director Clint Eastwood appeared at Romney's fundraiser here, telling reporters he endorsed Romney because "the country needs a boost somewhere."

"He just made my day," Romney said.

Romney aides said Friday that the event in Idaho's Sun Valley raised more than $2 million, a record for a fundraising event in the state of Idaho.

Eastwood was reluctantly drawn into the 2012 campaign earlier this year when an ad by Chrysler, entitled "Halftime in America," ran during halftime of the Super Bowl, narrated by Eastwood and seemingly an endorsement of President Barack Obama.

At the time, Eastwood said flatly that he was not endorsing either candidate, telling Fox News Channel he is "certainly not politically affiliated with Mr. Obama."

"It was meant to be a message about just about job growth and the spirit of America," Eastwood said at the time. "I think all politicians will agree with it. I thought the spirit was OK. I am not supporting any candidate at this time."

That changed Friday as Eastwood lumbered unaccompanied across the bridge to the resort where about 325 people turned out to contribute to Romney's campaign.

Eastwood took the stage after an impromptu introduction from Romney, telling the crowd that he first saw Romney when the candidate was running for governor of Massachusetts and Eastwood was directing the movie "Mystic River" in Boston.

Eastwood said he kept seeing Romney's ads and thinking, "God, this guy, he's too handsome to be governor. But it does look like he could be president."

Eastwood served as mayor of Carmel back in the 1980's and there had been speculation at the time that he would run for statewide office.

But Eastwood has never been very politically active. It's just that for the longest time, he was the highest profile conservative in Hollywood and the press focused on him for that reason.

More important than Eastwood's endorsement was Romney's huge fund raising haul. With Obama just making a $77 million ad buy between now and November, Romney is going to have to start matching him dollar for dollar if he expects to remain competitive.