Karl Rove is offended -- offended! -- about the Chrysler ad featuring Clint Eastwood. Something to do with big corporations supporting President Barack Obama. Or Barack Obama supporting big corporations. I don't know. He reports. You decide. Though it strikes me as odd that he didn't mention which president was the first to loan a huge chunk of government money to Chrysler. (Hint: It wasn't Obama and the president in question was defending his decisions just today.)
Meanwhile, on the Left, some are upset that the protest signs used in the spot were scrubbed clean of the pro-union messages. (The video was shot in Wisconsin last year.) Note: John Nichols of The Nation is simply reporting the scrubbing here; it's the commenters who are getting a little nutty what with the references to Stalin.
Oh, and parts of that ad weren't even shot in Detroit. Parts were shot in New Orleans. And Los Angeles. And that was the New York City skyline during that one bit! Imported from Detroit, my butt. Oh, and by the way, how do we even know that couple in the sky-rise apartment is married. We don't! Between this and M.I.A., we'll be lucky if our children don't turn on us by the end of this week.
Hmmm. Considering the news sources for some of this canned "outrage," I'm half tempted to think Fox News has declared war on Chrysler. And maybe even Clint Eastwood?
Well, Bill O' Reilly wasn't having any of it. "I know this guy," O' Reilly said of Eastwood. "He's not trying to get anyone elected."
For his part, Eastwood, who supported John McCain last time around, said in a statement: "l am certainly not politically affiliated with Mr. Obama. It was meant to be a message about just about job growth and the spirit of America. I think all politicians will agree with it. I thought the spirit was OK. I am not supporting any politician."
Back to Rove. He actually made one decent point when he brought up his concern about "the link between big government and the big businesses it bailed out." Of course, Rove should be much more concerned about big government and the banks and financial institutions it bailed out -- you know, because all those cats on Wall Street are going to flock to the Democratic Party now. It should also be pointed out that Rove often comes off as just the GOP-establishment type pushing back against those Tea Partiers who organized precisely because of government bailouts of failing corporations.