COMMENTARY | Chrysler's two-minute Super Bowl halftime ad with Clint Eastwood is being condemned as being inappropriately pro-Barack Obama's re-election by Karl Rove and other conservative pundits.
Chrysler CEO Sergio Marchionne denies any political intent and notes Eastwood's gravelly praise of a Detroit "comeback" does not mention President Obama.
Still, I won't join liberals who assert Rove is merely engaged in his usual whining and spinning. This time the operative once known as Bush's Brain has a point, although he perhaps protests too much in pleading to his friends at Fox, "(I)t is a sign of what happens when you have Chicago-style politics, and the president of the United States and his political minions are, in essence, using our tax dollars to buy corporate advertising."
C'mon, Rove! Deep dish pizzas and hot dogs with pickles may be "Chicago-style," but that's such an old-hat charge against Obama, you'd think he was the old Mayor Daley or someone. This ad was cast in Detroit, as was one for last year's Super Bowl featuring, in contrast to Eastwood, the hip-hopper Eminem. Also keep in mind that Eastwood is (or at least used to be) a libertarian Republican who filmed "Gran Torino" in Detroit.
Nonetheless, was there a pro-Obama slant to the Super Bowl halftime ad, intended or not? Well, three Obama spokesmen -- David Axelrod, Dan Pfeiffer and Bill Burton (now head of his super PAC) -- quickly twittered how great they felt about the ad. This shows why they've been lousy spokesmen who generally haven't served Obama well. If they had any smarts, they would have kept their mouths shut rather than playing into Rove's hands.
Chrysler's ad team, meanwhile, would have done better to run a spot that included a thank you to the American taxpayers, a note of the number of job saved and a vow to continue repayments on the bailout, which despite proclamations by Chrysler (and General Motors) is nowhere near being fully repaid.
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