Clint Eastwood’s Super Bowl Ad

I didn’t watch the Superbowl this year and, in fact, haven’t for many years now.  Living in Europe, I don’t see hardly any American football at all, so don’t really have time or inclination to pick a favorite team during the season (Like many Americans who are not from a big city, I have no

The Second Half is About to Begin

team to automatically root for based on geographical proximity.  People from Des Moines may root for Minneapolis, Chicago, St. Louis or Kansas City teams, but few get really excited  about it.)  and by the time the Super Bowl rolls around, it’s too late.

I’m glad Denver wasn’t in it.  It’s probably not right to want one team to lose just because of their quarterback’s religion, but he started it.  If he just focused on playing football, I wouldn’t care how often or how loudly he goes to church.

As much as I don’t pay attention to the Super Bowl, I don’t pay attention even more to the Super Bowl ads, which have become a really big deal, apparently.

One that apparently caught a lot of people’s attention this year was the Clint Eastwood for Chrysler commercial, in which he said “It’s halftime in America.”

Karl Rove said he was disturbed by the ad, saying Clint Eastwood was politicizing things.  What Clint said was that Chrysler, and America, are making a comeback.  What he didn’t mention, but didn’t really need to, is that Chrysler profited from a big government bailout and, therefore, if they’re making a comeback, Obama, and the much maligned stimulus package,  gets some of the credit.

So, I can sort of see  Karl’s point.  Any ad that shows American workers working, an ad that expresses confidence in the American economy and a sense of optimism about where America is going, is basically an ad for Obama.  Karl Rove, and the Republican party, would like to ban any political ads that have the word “comeback” in them.  Other words they’d like to see kept out of the public discourse this year are “recovery,” “success,” “jobs,” “hope,” and “optimistic outlook for the future.”

If Clint Eastwood can sell the American public on those concepts, the Republicans are finished.