Karl Rove’s hissy fit: “Offended” by Chrysler ad (updated) [View all]

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Last edited Tue Feb 7, 2012, 09:44 AM - Edit history (1)

Karl Rove’s hissy fit: “Offended” by Chrysler ad

If Clint Eastwood sounded like Obama, it's because the GOP has ceded optimism to the Democrats

By Joan Walsh

I admit it: Chrysler’s “Halftime in America” Super Bowl ad reminded me of President Obama’s best recent speeches. Actor Clint Eastwood, the face of rugged American individualism, talked about “tough eras” and “downturns” and “times when we didn’t understand each other,” but then declared:

But after those trials, we all rallied around what was right, and acted as one. Because that’s what we do. We find a way through tough times, and if we can’t find a way, then we’ll make one…

This country can’t be knocked out with one punch. We get right back up again and when we do the world is going to hear the roar of our engines. Yeah, it’s halftime America. And, our second half is about to begin.

Karl Rove heard echoes of Obama’s rhetoric too, and implicit optimism about the direction of the country, and cried foul.

“I was, frankly, offended by it,” Rove said on Fox News Monday. “I’m a huge fan of Clint Eastwood, I thought it was an extremely well-done ad, but it is a sign of what happens when you have Chicago-style politics, and the president of the United States and his political minions are, in essence, using our tax dollars to buy corporate advertising.”

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The flap over the ad confirms the GOP’s serious branding problem: The problem for Rove and the rest of the GOP is that their party’s narrative has become relentlessly negative, pessimistic and uninspiring. They’ve left the language of optimism and resilience, higher ground and common ground, to the Democrats, and lately President Obama has grabbed every opportunity to employ that language...the fact is the president saved the auto industry at a time when Republicans, most notably Mitt Romney, urged him to let it die. If he gets credit for that unpopular decision, that’s because he deserves it.

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http://www.salon.com/2012/02/06/karl_roves_hissy_fit_offended_by_chrysler_ad/singleton/

Updated to add:

Detroit Automakers Are Rebounding. Karl Rove Is Offended.

By DAVID FIRESTONE

The delicate Karl Rove said today he was “frankly, offended” during the Super Bowl halftime on Sunday. No, he didn’t mean his sensibilities were jolted by M.I.A.’s upraised middle finger; he was referring to the Chrysler ad that Clint Eastwood narrated, which many people who don’t share Mr. Rove’s political worldview thought was rather uplifting.

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These were fighting words to Mr. Rove, who suggested they were dictated by “the President of the United States and his political minions,” who bailed out Detroit with taxpayer dollars. It’s just another example of “Chicago-style politics,” he said, whatever that means.

The White House said it had nothing to do with the ad, but it had a great deal to do with Detroit’s resurgence, and that’s what’s really offensive to Mr. Rove and other Republicans. They’d prefer to drown out the good news coming from the carmakers, such as these recent headlines:

• Chrysler, rescued from bankruptcy by the federal government, reported $183 million in profits for last year, the first full year of earnings in the black since 2005. Worldwide sales of its cars grew by 22 percent.
  
• General Motors is likely to announce 2011 income of $8 billion, the Wall Street Journal reported, the highest in its history. It is on track to make $10 billion this year, a stunning turnaround from the bankruptcy restructuring led by the Obama administration in 2009.
  
• In Michigan, which for years has been one of the states hit hardest by the recession, the unemployment rate has fallen to 9.3 percent, the lowest level in more than three years.

These are inconvenient facts for both Mr. Rove and for Mitt Romney, who is on the record as opposing the automaker bailouts. The outcry being raised against the commercial is not really from people who are offended, but from those who are embarrassed.

http://loyalopposition.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/02/06/detroit-automakers-are-rebounding-karl-rove-is-offended/