The GOP's politics of pessimism

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http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/editorial/bs-ed-eastwood-20120211,0,2635332.story

The GOP's politics of pessimism

Karl Rove and others see partisanship in the actor and director's Super Bowl ad, but its message touches on something more fundamental than politics

8:00 a.m. EST, February 11, 2012

In a Chrysler advertisement aired during halftime of Sunday's Super Bowl, actor and director Clint Eastwood says, "I've seen a lot of tough eras, a lot of tough downturns in my life, times when we didn't understand each other. It seems we've lost our heart at times, and the fog of discord, division and blame made it hard to see what lies ahead. But after those trials, we all rallied around what was right and acted as one."

To judge from the reaction he got, we haven't achieved that last stage just yet. Mr. Eastwood was pilloried the next morning by Republican political strategist and Fox News commentator Karl Rove, among others, as a tool of President Barack Obama's re-election strategy. Mr. Rove said the ad was "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," the idea being that the ad was payback for the government bailout of the auto industry and that Mr. Eastwood, a longtime Republican, was somehow complicit in it.

Mr. Rove, of all people should realize how ridiculous it is to think that Chrysler would spend well more than $10 million to produce and air an ad that some people might consider an oblique endorsement of the president's economic policies. After all, the man behind two super PAC juggernauts, American Crossroads and Crossroads GPS, knows better than almost anyone that if Chrysler wanted to pay Mr. Obama back, it could buy as many TV ads as it wants directly calling for his re-election.

The clear and literal message of the ad was not political, much less partisan. It was, as Mr. Eastwood explained later, one of optimism. The ad was a pep talk for the American people, meant to reawaken our competitive spirits and help pull us out of the deepest recession since World War II. Detroit's auto industry came back from the brink, and if it can, so can the rest of the nation. "If Obama or any other politician wants to run with the spirit of that ad, go for it," Mr. Eastwood said on Fox News' "The O'Reilly Factor."