By Jonathan Mattise

 Rep. Allen West is back on the Treasure Coast campaign circuit after a quick stint at last week’s Republican National Convention in Tampa.

The Palm Beach Gardens Republican covered a bevvy of topics at a Wednesday town hall, including some praise for Clint Eastwood’s now-famous invisible-Obama-in-a-chair bit at the RNC. He also shared some news he’s now housing a Chinese exchange student.

Meanwhile, West’s November competition, Jupiter Democrat Patrick Murphy, was busy rubbing elbows at the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Here are some quick hits from West’s Wednesday event at Harbor Place at Port St. Lucie.

– It came up as a brief mention in a reporters gaggle at the RNC. But West confirmed Wednesday — his family is housing a 16-year-old Chinese exchange student for a year. That puts West’s tally at one wife, two teenage daughters, and one teenage exchange student.

“I think it’s great. She can learn from our culture, and my daughter can learn from her culture,” West said.

– Clint Eastwood grabbed a lot of attention with his speech at the RNC last week, his speech at the RNC last week to an invisible Obama in a chair. And he had a fan in West.

“I think it was hilarious. I was laughing my tail off,” West said. ”What did people think? Did they think that Clint Eastwood was going to give a policy speech? He came up there to poke fun and kind of add a little bit of levity before Marco Rubio came on and Gov. Romney came on.”

– West also took a guess at two “October surprises” he thinks President Obama has up his sleeve to get more votes in November.

“We have a president who doesn’t respect the fundamental premise of the separation of powers or checks and balances, and he will use the executive order to do whatever he wishes to bypass the legislative process,” West said. ”I will tell you, this is my estimation. Everyone talks about the October surprise. Two possible October surprises — you forgive student loan debt or you forgive mortgage debt, because it’s all about getting people to say, ‘you just gave me something.’”

Tags | Allen West, Chinese Exchange student