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Sherman Frederick
Does anyone get Chrysler's ad?
Updated: Feb. 12, 2012 | 8:08 a.m.
The most talked about commercial of this year's Super Bowl -- Chrysler's "It's halftime in America" ad featuring Clint Eastwood -- had the nation's political elite suspicious.
"Hey," both the left and right said, "is Dirty Harry talkin' about me or you?"
Well, if you are a straight-ticket party loyalist who puts partisanship over country, that ad is about you -- and not in a good way.
When Eastwood growls about how it is halftime in America, that the game isn't over, that we can't be knocked out by one punch, etc., the ad's creators hit a sweet spot in the American ethos.
"We find a way through tough times," the ad goes, "and if we can't find a way, then we'll make one. All that matters now is what's ahead, how do we come from behind, how do we come together, and how do we win."
I don't care what brand of coffee you drink, that's powerful stuff. It's almost poetry, and it favors neither political flavor.
It does, however, imply that we're going to need every available team member in the game. It is not OK for players -- rich or poor -- to ditch practice, slack off in the game and still expect a ring and paycheck.
The country aches to put its collective shoulder to the wheel for a leader who can lay aside prideful party politics and do what it takes to find a way to win, even at the expense of partisanship.
As Dirty Harry says: "All that matters now is what's ahead." To know which way to go requires brutal honesty about where we've been.
Look, President Barack Obama faces a stout re-election challenge because of the efficacy of his first term. If the policies of his first three years had lifted the economic weight that holds us down, we wouldn't be having such a vigorous halftime conversation, would we?
If I may be so bold as to use the layman's economic term, all of the Obama years have sucked wind. President George W. Bush's last two years did, too.
Unemployment remains horribly high. Real estate values have tanked, dragging down family savings, college plans and retirement with it.
Expensive campaign ads will try to paint a statistical feel-good picture of prosperity, but you can't fake the realities of the American living room. You can't pretend a mom or a dad don't want a job anymore just because they can no longer collect an unemployment check.
Detroit isn't fixed. If Detroit is better, is it because of the bailouts, or in spite of them? And, c'mon man, the irony of a corporate welfare recipient now owned by an Italian company paying millions for a Super Bowl ad to extol American grit is, well, surreal.
It is only topped on the crazy scale by our domestic energy policy. We say we encourage all energy sources, but we handcuff only the industries that work: coal, natural gas, nuclear and oil.
The value in "green" energy comes in pure research, which requires a small amount of federal assistance. Yet Washington doles out billions, ostensibly as fodder for future campaign ads. In the end, "green" welfare only benefits the fat cats who fund the war chests of congresscritters. Yet we're going to keep running that failed play in the second half?
While Democrats pretend to spin straw into gold, Republicans dither about abortion, gay marriage, the electability of a Mormon and, I kid you not, whether Mitt Romney is too successful of a businessman to be president.
Really? Have we now jumped the shark as a country on the merits of capitalism?
And, more to the point at hand, have the major political parties become so rigid in their play-calling that leaders can't point out what's not working and suggest a change?
It's halftime in America, and I ask: Does either party really get Dirty Harry's message?
Sherman Frederick, former publisher of the Las Vegas Review-Journal, writes a column for Stephens Media. Read his blog at www.lvrj.com/blogs/sherm.
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It is easy to understand why you are a failure in the newspaper business but will not have the sense to finally leave. This commercial must be one of the most successful since neo-conservatives are so threatened by it. The middle class has suffered with the leadership of the conservatives the last eleven years and this commercial gives people hope. No wonder you miss the point.
I used to deliver new Chrysler LHS, Concorde, Eagle cars to dealerships. The cars were made in CANADA. The all-American Chevy pick up truck. Remember "baseball, hot dogs, apple pie and Chevrolet" commercials? The trucks are made in CANADA. Etobicoke, Ontario, east of Toronto.
I own a Honda which was made in a plant here in the US... No Car is completely made in one country, though.. Even if you are buying a Crystler... a lot of parts are made all over the world. Buy American doesn't mean Buy American anymore. Anywho, I thought their ad was cool.. because Dirty Harry makes some good movies.. I still wouldn't buy their cars, because they are not known to last long.
Obummer said he would cut the debt in half in four years....Instead he has created more debt in little more than 3 years than all the debt EVER CREATED IN HISTORY!....With more of the same to come - his latest 'budget' is nothing more than political propaganda aimed at 'rich people' ...Anybody in Washington paying attention to the European debt crisis?...Anybody?...Even dumbocrats should be able to figure this stuff out!
Take a good look at Greece. If we don't get more than just half the taxpayers in America to pay taxes and continue to give the welfare that we do we are in trouble. If we don't elect a strong problem solver like Mitt Romney we are in huge trouble.
Think about it for a minute, Mark. At 81, I'm sure Eastwood didn't do the commercial to make money. Which means he wasn't just reading a script selling cars, so he could insulate himself from Ø's brilliant economic policies.
Whatever.
MS you ARE Paranoid, you hover over your posts like a vuture. Must be that false authority you exert with abandon.
It was an ad that sparked a lot of feeling, one with a good message, one that did not get partisan, one that did not call out car sales until the very end.
You cant see the message for the paranoia in your blood.
I suppose I should learn to be more paranoid so I could understand people like Shermy and x-man.
x, So it wasn't an ad by a car company interested in selling cars then? This WILL be news to Chrysler. What, then, WERE they paying Cling Eastwood, an actor who has played a tough guy for most of his career, to do?