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:
Jan '11
Re: It's Halftime, America
Wait, Karl Rove was offended. I'm still offended at eight years of uncontrolled budgets and a pointless war in Iraq which gave us Speaker Pelosi, President Obama and even greater deficits. Coming from the D, this was just another commercial that unfortunately was aimed at the Detroit "we're down now, but we're coming back - we're gritty, tough, and we don't back away from a fight" type commercial. It was similar to the Imported from Detroit commercial last year.
I don't think the ad will be particularly useful much of the country, as I've watched these ads run with Phoenix natives, and they just scratch their heads. It really is a rust-belt thing, and has little to do with our current failure of a president.
Neocons - go back to conjuring up boogeyman rogue nations and some league of bad nations so we can spend on the military like liberals spend on welfare. Don't create false enemies with a car commercial. Very unbecoming.
Jun '11
Re: It's Halftime, America
More than championing the bailouts and U.S. purchase of GM, I heard, "It's half-time in America" as a thinly veiled re-election ad for Obama.
Jan '11
Re: It's Halftime, America
CAn we use the term "dog whistle".
Nov '10
Re: It's Halftime, America
As I watched this I became aware of an attack by aliens. Because that is what you assume when you watch this, that some outside force is attacking us. But it's not an outside force is it? It's us, our own greed, and ignorance. We want what we want, when we want it,and we don't want to pay much for it, but the people who get it to us better get paid a lot and it better not have come from China.
Aug '11
Re: It's Halftime, America
Sisyphus:
Insulted, offended, disappointed, provoked, and affirmed in my general divorce from television as a medium.
Yeah, but without a television, how are you supposed to watch Phineas and Ferb? Geez!
Aug '11
Re: It's Halftime, America
Yep. I was only half-paying attention, but that phrase definitely struck me as an obvious campaign message.
Mar '11
Re: It's Halftime, America
Rove got this one right. How Eastwood thought this was a good idea is beyond me.
Oct '10
Re: It's Halftime, America
The Republicans are in trouble in November if even Dirty Harry can be pwned by Barack.
Jun '11
Re: It's Halftime, America
Mark Steyn was great on this topic Monday on the most listened to radio program in America. Especially good was the part when a clueless caller took Mr. Steyn to task for not being on board with "the spirit of America" embodied in the ad. Priceless stuff.
May '11
Re: It's Halftime, America
It sounds like Clint is overplaying his gravely voice. Does he really sound that rough in real life? The commercial itself was pure propoganda. The commercial didn't show or explain the superioty of the product it made a guilt laden patriotic plea for us to save a failing city and company.
Nov '11
Re: It's Halftime, America
Well I suppose that I am offended, but not just at the President. The illegal bailout of the car companies began under Rove's most famous client, a "compassionate conservative" who claimed first that he had no authority under law to do so, and then did it anyway when Congress declined to act. He justified his illegal (and politically treacherous) act by claiming that the unauthorized diversion of other people's money to clueless and corrupt corporations was "the responsible thing to do". President Obama may be enjoying the meal, but the table was set by the casual conservatism that Rove made his name promoting.
Re: It's Halftime, America
Yes! I actually enjoy a bit of hathos and glurge, time to time. And the beginning of this ad was awesome and got me to stop talking to my couchmate and listen. But what really bothered me about this commercial was the let-down at the end. What a disappointing product. And if you tell me that I have to buy a car out of patriotic guilt, you're basically admitting that you know it's a bad product, too.
Sep '10
Re: It's Halftime, America
I still get a sadistic chuckle out of remembering the horror of Daimler Benz figuring out how much they got snookered for in buying Chrysler. Its even a case study now. Bob Eaton made out very well on that one, of course.
May '10
Re: It's Halftime, America
I couldn't care less if Karl Rove says he's offended by anything. Even when he's actually saying something he believes, he says it to score political points for Republicans.
This is basically a pro-union ad. It's just about selling cars, but the mere existence of the Detroit manufacturers is an affront while unions have such a stranglehold over them. Owners should be free to be owners, and managers free to be managers. Forceful domination of a company by its workers is a reflection of communism.
I don't know if Eastwood is pro-union, but he probably considers it patriotic to keep American vehicle manufacturers afloat. Not every American company represents the values which made America strong and noble.
Dec '10
Re: It's Halftime, America
I suppose we really shouldn't start to worry until Karl Rove moves from talking about being 'frankly offended' to his calling for 'fundamental change' . . .
Aug '10
Re: It's Halftime, America
Here's a pretty great satirical re-imagining of Clint's speech from The Prince Arthur Herald.
An excerpt:
(FYI: The Prince Arthur Herald is a Canadian conservative student newspaper. I imagine you would never expect to see those four words strung together like that.)
Aug '10
Re: It's Halftime, America
For what it's worth, here's Eastwood's defense:
Source: http://nation.foxnews.com/clint-eastwood/2012/02/06/clint-eastwood-i-am-certainly-not-affiliated-mr-obama
Feb '12
Re: It's Halftime, America
Perhaps if Clint had seen the following video he wouldn't be telling us to do like Detroit has done for our "second half":
http://youtu.be/1hhJ_49leBw
Jul '10
Re: It's Halftime, America
Didn't they do a similar ad with Eminem last year?
At least Chrysler is upgrading their pitchmen, while they downgrade their cars and their bondholders.
Jul '10
Re: It's Halftime, America
Del Mar Dave
Sisyphus: ...Insulted, offended, disappointed....
...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.
A moral tin ear from a Hollywood figure? I'm shocked. Simply shocked.