Yet Again, The GOP Makes A Little Controversy Even Worse
You have to hand it to the Republican Party: It not only seems incapable of turning the other cheek, but habitually makes matters worse when a little controversy crosses its path.
The latest little controversy is a Chrysler Corporation ad titled “It’s Halftime in America” aired during Super Bowl on Sunday evening. The ad, rather drearily uninventive as were most this year, featured Hollywood icon Clint Eastwood extolling the success of the Bush and Obama administration-engineered bailout that saved the asses of Chrysler and General Motors although neither president was mentioned by name.
Rather than turning the other cheek, Republicans have asserted that the commercial with its unabashedly populist message could pass for an Obama re-election ad, besides which all four remaining presidential candidates opposed the bailouts.
The bloviater in chief this time around has been Kark Rove.
Rove, who has nibbled down all of his finger and toenails to nubs because his GOP has deftly turned a good shot at recapturing the White House and Senate into a long shot in part because the kind of bare-knuckle politics and right-wing ass kissing that he espoused, told Fox News that:
“This [ad] is a sign of what happens when you have the government getting in bed with big business like the bailout of the auto companies. They begin to, the leadership of the auto companies feel they need to do something to repay their political patrons. Remember, we lost $1.8 billion as taxpayers on the government bailout of Chrysler, and we’re going to lose $14 billion in the bailout of Chrysler and General Motors. And you got to bet in the boardrooms and management suites of these two big car companies, they are saying to themselves, ‘Look, the president bailed us out rather than making us go through the normal bankruptcy, he bailed us out. We’re going to end up not having to pay back this money to the taxpayers.’ ”
Rove, of course, is one of the most adept obfuscaters in contemporary politics, and Stanley Blow does a masterful job of taking him apart in a New York Times column:
* The overall bailouts saved an estimated 1.14 million jobs.
* It was George W. Bush who signed the first Chrysler bailout check.
* Of the total of $14.5 billion loaned to Chrysler, the company has returned $11.5 billion to taxpayers.
* The government has sold its Chrysler stock, further limiting taxpayer exposure.
* Trying to eschew Bush’s role in order to tarnish Obama’s results is fundamentally dishonest.
* Eastwood, of course, is a dyed-in-the-wool Republican whom Bush’s father, George H.W., considered as a running mate in 1988.
One would think that with Michigan being a crucial swing state, Republicans would want to move the conversation as far away from the bailouts as possible, especially because Romney — who has been accurately portrayed as a grim reaper when it comes to jobs — has been especially vociferous in opposing them.
Blow concludes by saying, “Oh, Karl. That thing slapping you in the face is called the truth. As Clint Eastwood might say, ‘Get off my lawn.’ ”
But it was Ta-Nehisi Coates who had the best line: “When Republicans line up against Clint Eastwood and cars, one has to ask, ‘What could they possibly be for?’ Child labor? Charters for blah people? Midnight Basketball?”
12 Responses to “Yet Again, The GOP Makes A Little Controversy Even Worse”
Not sure that Eastwood is a ‘dyed-in-the-wool Republican’ anymore. In an interview with the Guardian back in 2009, he claimed to be a Libertarian. He says he registered as a Republican back in 1951 — but since then,”the Republican party has lost its way” (ain’t THAT the truth?!) – that he was not in favour of going to war in Iraq, and the evangelical side of the party annoys him. (That last bit makes me smile out loud. Ha!)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2009/feb/14/clint-eastwood-gran-torino
Regardless of whether he’s a Republican or a Libertarian, he’s still one helluva sexy looking guy for his age.
Umm…you do know that being a libertarian (see Ron Paul as example) does not exclude one from either party, right? Right? I mean…no party has the right to refuse…
I think you meant to say that Mr. Eastwood is not a conservative, rather he is a libertarian (as are Ron and Rand Paul). Thus, he might have issues with the Republican platform, but that would not mean he is not a Republican. T. Roosevelt would have a problem with the Republican platform were he alive today. He was a Republican during his lifetime.
How curious that we see false charges as part of defensiveness about this Super Bowl commercial while the same people have been obsessed to a true extreme with Komen and Planned Parenthood (same defensiveness but even more crazy).
Hi Rcoutme … oh yes, I do know that libertarians can be from (or be attached to) either party — I suppose it was more the NYT writer’s ‘dyed in the wool’ Republican description that I was remarking on. ‘Dyed in the wool’ Republican means, to me, unchanging, immoveable, etc., not somebody who’d claim a Libertarian stance and admit to opining that the Republican party had lost its way. Tho lord knows, you never can tell these days. Pols talk out of both sides of their mouths, it seems.
I liked the commercial and I really liked Blow’s summation — ‘that thing slapping you in the face is the truth’ … nice visual in that.
How much did the two-minutes cost, again.
If they wanted to thank Bush and Obama for bailing them out, they could have run full page ads in every paper in the country, even if Eastwood did the commercial for free. just sayin.
As far as football and ruining it are concerned, and what to do about it:
Never mind the stupid commercials and look at (and listen to) that cheap glam and at times, sleaze at halftime. “Defining deviancy down” includes wanting to do such shows at halftime in playoff games as well. Haven’t we been “treated” to that before?
If only instead of the stupid shows, and the rest of the hype, we had at halftime a combination of Hall of Fame inductions and first round draft picks for the next year.
Much, much, much classier, I at least say.
Conservative outrage is beyond tiresome.
zippee:
Yes, because that outrage is premanufactured and canned, just like Cheese Wiz.
Gee wiz, speaking of canned outrage, didn’t I see some of you guys at the last war protest.
Mmmm…Cheese Wiz
I personally would like to see more marching bands play during half-time. Why not reward those students (thinking HS maybe college) who spend all those hours? It sometimes drives me crazy (not to mention driving my wife crazy) that half-time shows on non-Saturdays for college football games still go to talking heads instead of the bands.
I can’t remember the last time I actually bothered to watch the half time show. They are really just overblown and over hyped.
The Patriots actually practiced simulating the longer time out; didn’t help.