Saturday, February 11, 2012

Halftime in America

Clint Eastwood is a man who speaks his right wing convictions freely.  As recently as last November he was quoted as being opposed to the bailouts of General Motors and Chrysler. That’s why his two minute Super Bowl commercial for Chrysler, “Halftime in America,” came as such a surprise. Of course he was offered good money that I understand went to charities. Given what’s publicly known about him it seems unlikely that his convictions are for sale, certainly not at that price. His reversal on the bailout may have been a message from God, a bolt of lightning from Zeus or, more likely in my opinion, reason.
 
The two minute narrative, which cost a pretty penny, concerned a struggling city, Detroit, and the importance to that city of the survival of its major industry. Apart from the unannounced display of Chrysler logo only a few seconds from the end there was no mention of a sponsor. Until then it could have been Studebaker. As issue TV commercials go, this one had more than its share of class.
 
Make no mistake, this was an issue ad!  As a true believer, I went for it hook, line and sinker. Karl Rove sees it differently. He and his party have been proclaiming fiscal austerity the cure for our current ailments, as opposed to increased government investment, favored by Democrats. Here comes living breathing evidence of a case in which he and his crowd were completely wrong.
 
What happened in Detroit is a microcosm of what Obama has been attempting nationally. It was one of the few things he was able to get past the parliamentary obstructionism of Senate Republicans, who opposed the auto bailout, but with less than their usual efficacy. My guess is that they still oppose it nominally, but that it’s a subject they’d prefer discussing as little as possible. It seems common sense that Democrats and the left in general should be shouting “Detroit” from the rooftops between now and November.
 
It can be argued that the success of this rescue is pertinent only in Detroit. As closing evidence I present America in the 1930s and the relative success of Hoover’s and FDR’s response to circumstances similar to today. One might even conclude that there are times when it’s better to have spendthrifts running the show than misers.
 
 

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