I'm not understanding the 'dichotomy' here, unless you're arguing that political parties and affiliations in general and for the Republicans especially are some sort of tribal loyalty thing, that calling oneself a Republican means that one automatically has to oppose and denigrate anything done by a Democrat and blindly support the actions and policies of the RNC, the Republican leadership and Republican candidates. Or vice versa, for that matter.

Unless Clint Eastwood is on record opposing the Motor City bailout, there's no dichotomy here whatsoever.

You pretty much cleared up your own confusion there Colin.

lol ^that response is awesome :)

IF ONLY what you described as some preposterous act/pathetic inability to think for one's self and be an individul wasnt, in fact, the reality being practiced and displayed for the whole world to see, from the House Republicans who opposed themselves repetitively on their own principles and Core values! JUST to oppose all of the president's bills and almost every initiative he's tried to bring in and or get credit for... then...

maybe it would've made more sense :\

But sry that's the way it is now. Stop living in fantasy land and smell the disgusting reality of our human nature!!

Dichotomy: division into two mutually exclusive, opposed, or contradictory groups; a dichotomy between thought and action.

A notable republican who has spent time and money to defeat President Obama (Mr. Eastwood) makes a commercial, during the Super Bowl, in an election year, hailing a huge accomplishment and victory of President Obama.

I'm not sure how much clearer I can put it for you.

...and don't misunderstand me here, I'm thrilled that Mr. Eastwood did the commercial; I thought it was great and wish more notable republicans would put country above party.

Lol, he only was for McCain because they are both old, cranky and don't like foreign looking people on their lawn.

The best danm commercial yet!!! Yes it's half time (2nd term) America/Obama and we well WIN!!

Don't think it's true that Clint is a Republican, check your facts.

The best danm commercial yet!!! Yes it's half time (2nd term) America/Obama and we well WIN!!

I, myself, had issues with his saying something along the lines of "both sides worked together" because both sides did not work together to save the auto industry. As Contessa61 below loves to point out, the GOP would much rather have destroyed a bunch of lives for greed, putting people who worked sometimes their whole lives on Medicare alone, the same Medicare that the GOP wants to gut.

I thought it was a nice rah-rah! piece, but I had a hard time listening to the rest after that one line.

I thought that commercial was the best. however, it was about Obama Motors so that ruined it.

Is Clint simply a Republican? Like any thinking person, his political views are a little more nuanced than that. He seems to be backing away from the Republican party a bit lately. Did you see his interview in GQ? Here's part of it:

GQ: Yeah, but maybe between the movies you have some political feelings. [to Eastwood] You've described yourself as a social libertarian. What does that mean to you?
Clint Eastwood: I was an Eisenhower Republican when I started out at 21, because he promised to get us out of the Korean War. And over the years, I realized there was a Republican philosophy that I liked. And then they lost it. And libertarians had more of it. Because what I really believe is, Let's spend a little more time leaving everybody alone. These people who are making a big deal out of gay marriage? I don't give a @!$%# about who wants to get married to anybody else! Why not?! We're making a big deal out of things we shouldn't be making a deal out of.

Leonardo Dicaprio: That's the most infuriating thing—watching people focus on these things. Meanwhile, there's the onset of global warming and—

Clint Eastwood: Exactly!

Leonardo Dicaprio: —and these incredibly scary and menacing things with the future of our economy. Our relationship to the rest of the world. And here we are focusing on this?

Clint Eastwood: They go on and on with all this bull@!$%# about "sanctity"—don't give me that sanctity crap! Just give everybody the chance to have the life they want.

Leonardo Dicaprio: It's the great diversion. Politicians are masters at getting you to be on their side so that you don't look at how big business—

Clint Eastwood: I love big business! [They both laugh.] Clint Eastwood: I love big business if it hires everybody and does all the right things, and if they get off track then they'll have to deal with whatever—

Leonardo Dicaprio: But they often do get off track, unfortunately. See, now you've got us in a political debate!

In an interview with the Vancover Sun last November, Mr. Eastwood said "I'm a big hawk on cutting the deficit. I was against the stimulus thing too. We shouldn't be bailing out the banks and car companies." Think he's changed his mind?

Mr. Eastwood has been a registered republican since the 50's. I did check.

The fact that he calls himself a "Libertarian" just adds to the oddness of this commercial because the majority of libertarians are furvently against government bailouts.

funny how no liberal here corrects the spelling of another liberal.

Had your husband lost everything, the company and the union were to blame. As it is, taxpayers are propping up another "too big to fail". Had a republican been in the white house, all legacy costs would be wiped off the books and GM would be a much leaner, big fighting machine with more jobs to offer.

Clearly you missed the message of the commercial. The Good Book warns us about before whom we cast our pearls....

O No "And that is just the way it is" every time Congressman Ted Poe (R-TX) says that on the House Floor I want to kick in the TV

Stole that from a Hardee's ad actually.

This commercial was 2 minutes long, but it didn't seem like it because it was so good. It's half-time in America and like Eli, President Obama will lead us to a victory.

the occupy movement that even Bill Maher is getting fed up with?

The problem with the Occupy movement is

A) They seem to be losing - the media constantly reports on them being kicked out of here or there. I imagine they just regroup elsewhere, but we don't hear about it, so they seem like a failed movement.

B) Although it contains lots of adults, there is a very high percentage of college aged kids. They don't have to work, so they can show up. And the media subtly portrays it as being a "whiny-kid" thing. It certainly isn't, and hard working blue-collar family supporting types make it when they can and make some real sacrifices to stay involved.

C) This one isn't a misread by the media - the Occupy movement doesn't have a clear agenda. Beyond "Tax the Rich" and "Help the Middle Class" (both presented only vaguely), the main message of the Occupy movement is frustration with the status quo without telling us what the new status quo should be. In Europe they'd be socialists, but that's such a bad word over here...

D) They don't have a hierarchy. With nobody in charge, the media doesn't know who to talk to except for random people who (being random people) are often ignorant or misinformed.

E) Many or most probably won't vote because they see Obama as a sell-out. Sad, because Obama has achieved far more than he should have, given the Republican obstructionism about.

Someone with editing skills seriously needs to recut this with some music from The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly.

Why do all these people think this was a good thing? He's been a rabid republican ---what part of Detroits renewal does he think they would have seen without the bailout from Obama?

"what part of Detroits renewal does he think they would have seen without the bailout from Obama?"

Bankruptcy, restructuring, legacy costs evaporate = a much more efficient, leaner auto company. That's what.

We know that Mitt isn't your real name. Who knew it was actually Contessa? Yeah, "legacy costs" is one of those sanitized euphemisms for retired workers' pensions and negotiated agreements. The fact that GM is back on top again and Detroit didn't become a ghost town is apparently not enough. By "leaner auto company" you mean highly paid CEOs paying slave wages to workers in China. Clearly, you're part of the 1% and you still don't get it. If you're "getting tired" of OWS, wait a few months, honey. You haven't seen anything yet.

Actually, George W. Bush indicated that he might be inclined to save the auto industry as well, but his term was running out (happily). As for those "legacy costs," those are actually human beings, not just costs. How can Republicans lecture everyone else about personal responsibility and then, when it is economically advantageous, advocate shirking responsibilities to others, especially when those others actually paid into the system as well?

The companies and the unions seem to be doing just fine, and they worked together to keep things together. It sounds to me like the perfect kind of scenario for fixing a lot of problems in our country, rather than just complaining and pointing fingers, something the Republican candidates for President are expert at.

Some of those legacy costs have old ladies on expensive health care when they could do just fine on Medicare. Also, how many companies have gone bankrupt with employees losing their pension? Should taxpayers bail out everyone's pension? Do away with all pensions and have everyone invest in IRAs and 401k.

oh my dear Contessa, you do realize if those old ladies on expensive health care (which is private health care) were to do just fine on Medicare, they would be on the federal health plan? It is one or the other. private insurance or Medicare.

All of these lovely Republicans get their tax supported "Legacy costs" but the line workers in Detroit shouldn't because we have allowed outsourcing to drive down their value as workers??? If I were you I would think a little about who's voting for your retirement...

Bankrupting Detroit would have put many of the suppliers out of business. Bankruptcy holds up payments to suppliers and it would have affected not just the bailed out automakers but all other automakers. It's bad enough that many of those manufacturing jobs (making auto parts) are out of the country as it is. And putting suppliers out of business - as well as slowing down production at the automaker's themselves - affects entire communities, not just the affected companies. It affects all the businesses in a town, from barbers to restaurants.

But to people like Contessa61, that is a feature not a bug.

When it comes time to retire, contessa will eat cat food and rely on the emergency room for health care so that he will not be a "legacy expense."

The Ad didn't actually mention politics at all, for or against the Democrats.

It wasn't Pro-Obama, it was Pro-America, but I can see where people made the mistake.

Nobody put a gun to Mitt Romney's head and made him write an editorial saying "Let Detroit Go bankrupt."

To put it in Superbowl terms, he bet on the wrong team, Financial institutions vs Industry.

I believe that Clint does believe that American society can pick itself up and become prosperous. Design, tool up and manufacture products that folks all over the globe will purchase at a reasonable price.

All we need are salesmen and women.

We are not the high priced spread as so many political types and cable newsers (copyrighted this new word) tells us.

It is the Germans - and they are the #2 exporter, and they don't work for minimum wage with no benefits.

you mean vitriolic?

You know you're scraping the bottom of the barrel when you're whingeing about spelling.

Mech...totally agree. Perhaps you should tell all the liberals here who try and correct every misspelled word I ever type.

Good catch! While you seem hung up on spelling, your own posts show a complete lack of proper grammar, sentence structure and punctuation. I'm just saying. Presume much regarding what a fictional republican president would have done regarding your much ballyhoo-ed "legacy costs"? I do know for a fact your presumptive candidate, Mitt Romney would have let Detroit die. Too big to fail? Propped up? Wrong and wrong. Detroit is back, DESPITE your best efforts to the contrary. Great commercial!

His spelling is better than his logic or the reliability of his information. And you don't get any leaner than extinct, which is where the auto industry was going.

As for how good the marketplace place is for the nation...we aren't the first nation to go down this road: shaft the worker, anti-regulation, anti-union, pro-business.

The Japanese did it long before us. What it resulted in was called the Lost Decade. They too were all but destroyed by their financial investment sector. And they still had a substantial manufacturing sector.

We don't even have that. So how are these policies supposed to work for us. Comparing the closing of car makers to the death of the buggy whip industry at the dawn of the age of the automobile is a false analogy. There is no new form of transport supplanting cars. There is nothing taking its place. Just shuttered factories and car dealerships and lots of new unemployment.

Bankruptcy, restructuring, legacy costs evaporate = a much more efficient, leaner auto company.

Wrong. A cooling corpse stripped for parts to be sold on the open market. Predatory opportunism does not equal efficiency.

No. Mitt would not let Detroit fail. He would have restructured it so that it did not have all the legacy costs. He would have not given half the company to the union. It would be doing much better under Mitt, like the rest of the economy.

Ahahahah. Japan's lost decade was the direct result of propping up failing institutions. If they would have let things go broke and hit rock bottom, the recovery wouldn't have taken 10 years. Do your research.

You mean like they did for America at the end of the Bush and Reagan's Administrations. This is what good fiscal prudence looks like?

Here's a hint. Just because SOMEBODY, like vulture capitalists, is making money on the deal doesn't mean its good ethical or remotely sound.

You mean like they did for America at the end of the Bush and Reagan's Administrations. This is what good fiscal prudence looks like?

Can you extrapolate a bit?

Have some more freon. I already did. Ad Nauseum.

Why yes, the desire for vengeance, recrimination and blame is ALWAYS so helpful. It worked so well in the former Yugoslavia. Too bad they didn't do that in South Africa, opting instead for those damned Truth and Reconciliation Committees instead, who knows WHAT they could have accomplished.

Sorry, but your version of how to get things done is what really doesn't work, no matter how much chest-beating you do: saying something with a snarl doesn't make it anymore convincing.

It's funny how one man's blame is another man's responsibility.

Sure, Colin: let's continue to forget the years of Congressional (and Executive) Republican extremism in the name of our hallowed 1%, at the expense of our 99% and hundreds of thousands of people in Iran, etc. Suddenly, out of a common sense of goodness for this country and our international friends, the Republicans will push down the inane cries of reactionary libertarians in the Tea Party, forget about cheques in the mail from their friends Koch, and so forth.

As Luck123 noted, this is about learning and not staying ignorant. If a rabid dog bites you repeatedly, it's best to remember that dealing with that dog is not to assume it will suddenly come around and actually be your friend.

Now, given the reality up until today, I don't know in which fantasy land Clint Eastwood's political background allows for moving ahead within our federal or even many state political halls. Perhaps he's talking about people somehow overcoming the limitations imposed by 1%-favoring representatives in government and creating jobs, working innovatively, creating a healthier, more sustainable and more opportunity-filled future for our population with an imbalanced level of support from their own government at most levels . . . or perhaps he somehow believes that his own party has most of the best answers in their insane drive to make the 1% more immune from the consequences of their actions than ever before.

I found the commercial heartening on a gut level, but awkward and inappropriate from the compromised representative who offered the message.

Colin: So, you're against recrimination and blame?

Does that mean you're willing to throw away our entire legal system?

I mean, when someone does something wrong, so what, right? Murder? Eh. Burglary? Pshaw. Let's just move ahead.

When President Obama was elected, a friend made me notice how in his inauguration speech, Mr Obama was very eager to differentiate himself from former President Bush. And she, a person of color which helped very much the Obama campaign in Virginia, was almost blaming Mr Obama for this. She made me notice how graceful Mr Bush had been during the transition. To which I responded: There is no such thing as political forgiveness. The will to go ahead, which is rightful and necessary, need not to be confused with "wiping out the past". Former President Bush would have bailed out the auto industry? Perhaps. But the downturn of the economy is entirely the fault of his administration, which, among other things, stripped down any possible regulation, from the highest to the lowest level.

Sorry, I repeat myself: No such thing as political forgiveness.

Precisely, Lucky. We're a democracy, which means (among other things) that we have to keep track of who and what worked and didn't work. We needn't hate them or revile them, but we do need to pay attention. If a political movement proves itself to be nonfunctional (for example the Tea Party's political obstructionism) we have to pay attention and judge that movement a failure.

That doesn't mean we have to hate anyone at all. I do, in fact, despise Cheney and Rove, and perhaps their cowboy puppet. But I also recognize the the majority of the Tea Party is made up of people who genuinely believe in America, just like we do, and are actively fighting to make it better. Even if their version of "better" is dead wrong, which it is, I'll call them patriots for caring about and fighting about their country.