It's not that hard to understand, actually.Apparently Clint Eastwood is personally upset that some people took Chrysler's "halftime in America" to be a positive commentary on the Obama administration.
This seems totally untenable to me. Whether Eastwood or Chrysler executives like to talk about it, the company—currently enjoying double-digit sales growth—would not currently exist today if not for the Obama administration.
...I had concerns about the Obama approach at the time (concerns that I haven't really dropped) that automobile-oriented industrial policy has not really served America well for the past several decades and that he was squandering a non-replicable opportunity to get us off that path. But whether you like what he did or not, there's no denying its impact. The automobile industry of the upper Midwest is still with us specifically because Team Obama chose to ensure that it would remain there.
Since the GOP's center-of-gravity is now in the South, welcoming host of foreign auto manufacturers - Mercedes, Honda, Hyundai, etc. - it's no longer in the interest of the GOP to support Detroit at all. At all! The hell with all that Michigan dead weight!
It's a big, big change from the sentimental days of 'buy American'. But it's not in the interest of the GOP to highlight that change, which makes me wonder why Rove is so publicly upset. Probably just another case of bitch-slapping the Hollywood types, to keep them in line.
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