It's Halftime, America
Peter Robinson ·
February 7, 2012 at 8:06am
Here's Clint:
Here's Karl Rove:
I was frankly offended by it. I'm a huge fan of Clint Eastwood. I thought it was an extremely well done ad. But it is a sign of what happens when you have Chicago-style politics. The President of the United States' political minions are, in essence, using our tax dollars to buy corporate advertising and the best wishes of the management, which has benefited by getting a bunch of our money that they'll never pay back.
"Frankly offended."
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Comments:
Jul '11
Re: It's Halftime, America
Barrack was smiling and thinking,"Whooped em again Josey". Hollywood has spoken, perhaps we should speak back with an add from those who had their assets stolen by the restructuring. Maybe the consequences of abandoning contract law for political expedience ought to be explained as well to provide some balance. If the GOP had half a brain they would counter this quickly. Throw Jon Voigt up there, he has a great deliverance too.
Oct '10
Re: It's Halftime, America
Apparently the commercial was shot in New Orleans, for one. Another thing, Clint apparently isn't a fan of the bailout, nor of Obama, I suspect. But that raises questions about why he did the commercial. Oh, and, as if you needed to know, the White House approves of the ad. I guess you can say Obama "approved the message," if you know what I mean.
Jul '11
Re: It's Halftime, America
Does anyone think that we can get Vince Lombardi to do a halftime speech about the horrible first half to justify a quarterback change?
Dec '10
Re: It's Halftime, America
Does anyone ever ask what Ford is supposed to do while all of this crap is going on. They didn't make GM's mistakes. Ford, with fewer resources, did a better job.
Now what are they supposed to do? Watch as the idiots, pumped up by an ocean of tax dollars, steal their new customers.
I love America, I love Clint Eastwood, but this is just nonsense. All form and no content whatsoever.
It's not half time at all. We are still on the Obama-OPM-Whiney-Entitlement Drug if we watch this garbage without the feeling of nausea that it ought to engender.
It will be Morning in America again when we stop the cheap and phoney pseudo solutions and GO BACK TO WORK!
Regards from The Island,
Jim
Feb '12
Re: It's Halftime, America
Doc Jay-I don't think Obamacare would cover resuscitation after this long, but I bet that if Obama is defeated in the election his concession speech will include the phrase "We didn't lose, we just ran out of votes".
Edited on February 7, 2012 at 9:18amMay '11
Re: It's Halftime, America
There was a discussion over Rove's comments today on a Facebook forum I frequent, based off this Washington Post link: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix/post/karl-rove-offended-by-clint-eastwoods-chrysler-ad/2012/02/06/gIQAYt3HuQ_blog.html
After about 80 comments probably about 1/3 of the respondents agreed with Rove on it being a thinly veiled support of the Obama stimulus from a bailout beneficiary, the other 1/3 supported the ad and the Obama administration's policy and used the opportunity to viciously malign Rove, and the rest thought it was just a commercial and couldn't understand what the fuss was about.
Aug '11
Re: It's Halftime, America
Without context, I would have thought that the ad was about re-electing Obama. It certainly echoes "Morning in America" and the political message comes through a lot stronger than the commercial message.
Dec '10
Re: It's Halftime, America
I stood up and yelled at the TV (something I haven't done in a long time) when he said "We all need to pull together."
We do not all need to pull together.
What we need is for the @*$%^holes ostensibly in charge in government everywhere to take their boots off our necks and let us work!
I want to work. I have ideas that people would pay for. I have services that I could offer to people. There are things that I could build and sell.
What I do not have is hundreds of thousands of dollars to burn on "compliance" costs and "filing fees" and other assorted barriers to entry that do nothing but serve as bouncer for the guys who are already inside the club. It is damned hard to turn a profit when large chunks of your sunk costs are nothing but fees that result in no salable product.
At this point, my biggest hurdles are government imposed (and pointless to boot).
There are a lot of people like me out here, who want desperately to work, but find the machine of government constantly working against them.
Edited on February 7, 2012 at 10:11amMay '11
Re: It's Halftime, America
James Gawron: Does anyone ever ask what Ford is supposed to do while all of this crap is going on. They didn't make GM's mistakes. Ford, with fewer resources, did a better job.
. . .
Regards from The Island,
Jim · 55 minutes ago
What's Ford supposed to do? Maybe they should bring back the Gran Torino.
Edited on February 7, 2012 at 11:30amJun '10
Re: It's Halftime, America
Phone booth manufacturers are hurting. Should the government bail them out too?
Dec '10
Re: It's Halftime, America
If we're gonna carry this football analogy through, I suggest we take our cues from teentastic football flick "Varsity Blues".
Not to ruin the ending, but if we want to win this one in the second half, we need to run our coach (the .gov) out of the locker room just like they did Kilmer.
Of, if you're more of a history buff, we need to scream at the top of our voices, "Laissez faire, morbleu! Laissez faire!!"
May '11
Re: It's Halftime, America
"Disappointment" is more what I felt when I saw the ad, on youtube, I thought "Geez Clint, did you need the payday that bad...? Perhaps he did not get approval on the final cut?
Jul '10
Re: It's Halftime, America
First off, this is the only bit of the Superbowl programming I actually saw. The little Sisyphuses' were watching Superbowl ads after the Fineas and Pherb marathon when I stepped into the kitchen to get a soda from the fridge.
Eastwood's generation was raised on American muscle cars, creating a strong romantic bond between powerful cars and male potency. This commercial connects with that. As an analysis of the current state of American automobile manufacturing, it is beautifully stylistic incoherent drivel on behalf of an undead auto giant under Italian ownership waiting for the other shoe to drop when the regime is finally set aside and capitalism, and a city that has been gutted by incompetent management, union overreach, corrupt politics, and feckless federal regulation mongering.
It diminished Clint and produced a wholly unintended bathos marred only by Clint's regrettable participation.
And it called me stupid, but Dan Snyder and the NFL did that for years before I finally walked away from the game of Sammy Baugh and Larry Brown and Sonny Jurgensen and Joe Gibbs and Darrel Green.
Insulted, offended, disappointed, provoked, and affirmed in my general divorce from television as a medium.
Edited on February 7, 2012 at 12:04pmOct '10
Re: It's Halftime, America
Sisyphus: ...Insulted, offended, disappointed.... · 2 minutes ago
Edited 0 minutes ago
...but not entirely surprised. Don't forget that it wasn't that long ago when Hollywood was cooing about how Eastwood had "grown" or "matured" - the same way that Supreme Court Justices have done.
Dec '11
Re: It's Halftime, America
I get it. Its a marketing campaign to tug at heartstrings, to sell mediocre overpriced cars. Its not some grand political statement as much as it is just painfully oblivious.
Nov '10
Re: It's Halftime, America
Incredibly shortsighted by Chrysler. This only hardens the resolve by many, including myself, never to buy a GM or Chrysler product because it will be seen as buying into government/union can do it better. It has always been ironic that most liberals buy foreign cars, now they can add many of us to that list as well. I thought the American car industry had enough of its own structural problems
Oct '10
Re: It's Halftime, America
I hope Clint offers a clarification. Given all the attention this is getting, he might.
Aug '10
Re: It's Halftime, America
Are we supposed to forget that Obama tossed 100 yeaes of contract law under the bus when he thwarted the rules of credit and bankruptcy ? The stunt with GM and Chrysler literally screwed thousands of citizens holding billions in credit instruments, leaving them no recourse. and then he shovels massive chunks of the equity to the UAW !!! Why this didn't cause the world's largest lawsuit is beyond me . And now he lets Fiat slip in, shovel more money to the UAW , which in turn strikes Ford ( revenge for not folding). Eastwood is just an actor, but Obama should be upholding the law, not breaking it.
Fiat ? What kind of an EU almsgiving was that ? Fiat didn't even pay a dividend to common stock. Sound fishy ? Hey , it's the Obama administration, if it says business, it probably swims.
Edited on February 7, 2012 at 3:46pmSep '10
Re: It's Halftime, America
He did: last night he told O'Reilly's producer that there was nothing political about it.
If there's one celebrity that deserves the benefit of the doubt from the center-right, it's Clint Eastwood.
GM and Chrysler's brands are suffering from the bailout. It's an issue they need to confront and defuse. Marketing is how you do that.
A former boss, an accomplished CMO, once justified her choice of a controversial ad to the board this way: "half the people will love us for it. Half will hate us. But nobody will forget us."
Chrysler's ad was business, not politics. And it worked.
May '10
Re: It's Halftime, America
It should have a required disclaimer at the end: "I'm Barack Obama, and I approve this message...paid for by taxpayer money...suckers!"