I thought this commerical was well-made. Who doesn’t like Clint, right?

But the ad invites criticism. Would Dirty Harry ask for a handout? Hell no, he wouldn’t. He could build a car made out of his melted Smith and Wesson handgun, all while eating a sandwich and zinging bad guys with one-liners.

So, bringing in the city of Detroit as some city on the ‘comeback’ after being knocked down, and blah blah blah, was a bit disingenuous as it fails to mention they knocked themselves out.  Detroit and the American car industry would not have made it to ‘half-time’ if it wasn’t for the Bail-Out ™.  They were carried by the taxpayer to half-time, beaten and bruised by building inferior products, bloated management and union mismanagement and over-the-rainbow promises to it’s retiring workforce. People will debate for years whether the bail-outs work, and I’m no expert. The point of this post is that having cool music and the coolest American film icon in a commercial about American ‘can do’ is a bad idea when you bring a failure of a company like GM/Chrysler/Chevrolet.

Both Bush and Obama are to be blamed/credited for the various bail-outs which rewarded those industries who behaved (and will continue to behave) in a reckless manner, knowing that they have a safety net in the brain-dead taxpayers via the federal government.  If America was hit and is readying for a comeback, it’s only because it allowed itself to get hit. The economy isn’t some otherworldly force that visited us by random chance and gave the United States a concussion.  Americans, rich and poor, in and out of Detroit, in and out of government, acted stupidly in spending and borrowing.

So, it was nice to see Clint talk about how America will soon roar back (easier said than done), but when I think of Detroit and the auto-industry, I think of  bailouts, the U.S. taxpayer being on the hook for a company that refuses to change, a company that thought the Chevy Volt was a good, affordable idea.

America will roar back in spite of Detroit, thank you very much.  The rest of us will pick up the slack so crappy car or solar-energy producing companies can exist and disappear and reappear depending upon who is in the White House.

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(update: thanks go Instapundit for sharing the post this evening!)

Further update: I’ll let the other sites, like Big Hollywood, to provide more info on this issue, where Eastwood is distancing himself from any political tones or intentions that the Chrysler commercial has.  If I don’t post (approve) your comment, it’s only because I think the few dozen listed are enough to provide several viewpoints and moderating comments isn’t on my Bucket List.