BY JESSICA SIBERT
ANCHOR CHRISTINA HARTMAN
As the Giants and Patriots headed in to their respective locker rooms for Sunday’s Super Bowl halftime, it was Clint Eastwood’s halftime pep talk that caught the country’s attention.
“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." (Video source: Chrysler)
Now, some conservative critics say the Chrysler commercial hailing the rebirth of Detroit’s auto industry amounted to a high-profile endorsement for President Obama. Here’s Fox News Contributor Karl Rove.
“I was frankly offended by it... 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.”
Critics say the message seems to allude to Obama’s $12.5 billion taxpayer-funded auto industry bailout— which Chrysler benefited from. A writer for the Huffington Post says there were other indications of a “Pro-Obama” endorsement as well.
“Eastwood’s use of the phrase ‘halftime in America’ implied Obama is nearing the halfway point of a two-term, eight-presidency. It also evoked the phrase ‘Morning in America’ that President Ronald Reagan used in his re-election campaign of 1984.”
But both Chrysler and Eastwood insist the ad had no political intent, and a blogger for The New Yorker says people are misunderstanding its significance.
“Its iconography runs deeper, along a less obvious political course. It’s not about Obama or even, mostly, about Detroit, but about time—in the life of a man, as much as a nation.”
And a writer for CBS News says the message of any advertisement is, ultimately, decided by viewers.
“Of course, Chrysler was quick to say the ad was not political. It would be dumb if they'd planned it to be--you need Democrats and Republicans to buy your cars. But Chrysler doesn't get to decide what's political. By playing on the themes of American greatness during a presidential election year, they're necessarily embracing political themes.”
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