Clint Eastwood Superbowl ad

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Ausm

Lifer
Oct 9, 1999
25,215
14
81
If it were up to us there would be a balanced budget. The US government would not be picking winners and losers on the backs of the US tax payers. US auto makers would live or die on their own merits lending to free market principles where Ford would have reigned supreme.

The ashes of the failed companies would give rise to new opportunity.

When did you reinvent your party? After the two unfunded wars, Medicare Part D and the Bush tax cuts?
 

The-Noid

Diamond Member
Nov 16, 2005
3,117
0
76
I'm not going to make a point either way on if the government should/should not have bailed out Chrysler which was then owned Cerberus Capital.

I do find the commercial at odds in that Fiat owns over 50% of Chrysler, meaning under IFRS means it is a consolidated entity on the financial statements of Fiat.

If the same commercial had been done with any of the other foreign car companies that had factories in the US, people would be up in arms, instead because it is Clint Eastwood and Chrysler everyone has a hard-on.

Yeah, lets have American labor make more cars so that the Italians benefit more! <-Tongue in Cheek

I really feel like Ford, who appears to be doing everything correctly should be showing off an American half-time commercial.
 
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Perknose

Forum Director & Omnipotent Overlord
Forum Director
Oct 9, 1999
46,009
8,640
136
Clint Eastwood is a famous libertarian leaning conservative. Not sure what you're trying to suggest.

Clint was saying specifically that the bailout of Chrysler by Americans through their federal government, without which Chrysler would have gone under, was a shining example of Americans pulling together, an example, btw, that has been completely and repeatedly demonized and opposed by both libertarian and conservative ideologues as socialist/communist anathema . . . Americans pulling together.

It's not what any poster here is trying to suggest, it's exactly what Clint Eastwood's message was.
 

Throckmorton

Lifer
Aug 23, 2007
16,830
3
0
The failed companies that required a bailout to survive.

Of course it's picking winners and losers. That money was not equally distributed to everyone in the industry. It is selectively given out to a chosen few, particularly political favorites. It's part of crony capitalism where your buddies get paid back.

No one lost, numbnuts. Ford didn't lose. GM didn't lose. Chrysler didn't lose. They're all thriving and better than ever.
 

The-Noid

Diamond Member
Nov 16, 2005
3,117
0
76
No one lost, numbnuts. Ford didn't lose. GM didn't lose. Chrysler didn't lose. They're all thriving and better than ever.

I would argue the debt holders of both Chrysler and GM were not given a fair chance at recovery.

No one is simply not true...

Again, not going to argue whether it was right or wrong, but there were definitely MANY stakeholders affected. It isn't as cut and dry as no one didn't lose.
 
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sunzt

Diamond Member
Nov 27, 2003
3,076
3
81
I would argue the debt holders of both Chrysler and GM were not given a fair chance at recovery.

No one is simply not true...

Again, not going to argue whether it was right or wrong, but there were definitely MANY stakeholders affected. It isn't as cut and dry as no one didn't lose.

Highly doubt anyone cares about wall street mgrs or funds who owned debt in an obviously bad investment during that time and were too stupid to sell.
 

The-Noid

Diamond Member
Nov 16, 2005
3,117
0
76
Highly doubt anyone cares about wall street mgrs or funds who owned debt in an obviously bad investment during that time and were too stupid to sell.

Actually a lot gm and ford paper by retail. There were also numerous union pensions that held the debt, which in a sense robbed one union to pay another. Bloomberg did a story on it around the time with the break. I will find it on the terminal tomorrow when I get back in the office.

Some of the cerberus paper ended up in some high yield funds, however most managers wanted nothing to do with gm/ford debt.

Who would have known the equity class would have gotten everything...
 
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Siddhartha

Lifer
Oct 17, 1999
12,502
1
81
The problem Mr Rove has with the ad is that it could be interpreted as being Obama positive. The Republicans attack, belittle, and question anything that can be remotely seen as Obama positive. This forum's thread on the 8.3% unemployment rate is a prime example of this.

Unfortunately for the GOP they have to be against anything that is positive for the US too.
 

jackschmittusa

Diamond Member
Apr 16, 2003
5,972
1
0
Eastwood said there was nothing political in the ad. In the absence of any proof, I'll take his word for it. I have no memory of him being called stupid or a liar, or compromising his integrity (a word his accusers would probably have to look up on Google).

You also have to remember that the Republicans have cast Obama as such an evil being, they cannot allow anything to be attached/attributed to him that might be considered good. It would be like saying that Satin is not all bad.
 

Balt

Lifer
Mar 12, 2000
12,674
482
126
If it were up to us there would be a balanced budget. The US government would not be picking winners and losers on the backs of the US tax payers. US auto makers would live or die on their own merits lending to free market principles where Ford would have reigned supreme.

The ashes of the failed companies would give rise to new opportunity.

Who is "us"? I know you aren't talking about the GOP.
 

NeoV

Diamond Member
Apr 18, 2000
9,531
2
81
Karl Rove is the poster boy for all that is wrong with American politics today.
 

michal1980

Diamond Member
Mar 7, 2003
8,019
43
91
The problem Mr Rove has with the ad is that it could be interpreted as being Obama positive. The Republicans attack, belittle, and question anything that can be remotely seen as Obama positive. This forum's thread on the 8.3% unemployment rate is a prime example of this.

Unfortunately for the GOP they have to be against anything that is positive for the US too.

Because bailing out failed companies is somehow a good thing?

How come wall street is always in the news being labels as evil for taking bailouts and now being succesfull, yet Detroit is put on a pedestal of goverment succes?

Last yet I checked, were out billions on both. With wall street having greater odds of paying us back.

The big 3 have been on a course of failure for decades producing unprofitable crap. For 2 out of 3 companies the lights were going to be turned off, like they should have when companies produce junk. Yet somehow we have to applaud there supposded success now?

If the goverment didn't come in and force this 'bankruptcy' then give out billions of dollars in corporate WELFARE to these losers, where would they be? Under.

And thats where they should be.
 

michal1980

Diamond Member
Mar 7, 2003
8,019
43
91
Eastwood said there was nothing political in the ad. In the absence of any proof, I'll take his word for it. I have no memory of him being called stupid or a liar, or compromising his integrity (a word his accusers would probably have to look up on Google).

You also have to remember that the Republicans have cast Obama as such an evil being, they cannot allow anything to be attached/attributed to him that might be considered good. It would be like saying that Satin is not all bad.

An ACTOR has integrity? LOL they only read what someone else wrote for them.

If Clint Eastwood had integrity, he would have forced the Ad to be filmed in Detroit.

instead, it was made in LA and New orleans.

http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/detroit-comeback-ad-filmed-new-orleans-la_621036.html

So much for integrity.

How about this for integrity

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/02/06/chrysler-eastwood-idUSL2E8D6HCC20120206

"We shouldn't be bailing out the banks and car companies," actor, director and Academy Award winner Eastwood told the Los Angeles Times in November 2011. "If a CEO can't figure out how to make his company profitable, then he shouldn't be the CEO."
 

tweaker2

Lifer
Aug 5, 2000
14,476
6,896
136
To me the one thing that really and truly pisses off the Repubs to this very day about the auto industry bailouts and their successful recovery are those thousands and thousands of union jobs that got saved because of it. I feel it's the main reason the Repubs wanted the industry to fail: To get rid of the unions.

It also disproves the worn out myth that Repubs like to belch out any chance they get that "the unions alone caused the auto industry to go under".

I give credit to the American auto industry's management teams for much of the recovery, just as I assigned them most of the blame for it's near collapse. I also give credit to the auto unions for the concessions they offered up when it was necessary for them to do so. I also give credit to the American consumer who responded positively to the improved products the auto industry provided.

This is what I feel Eastwood reflected in his ad: That the auto industry's management, it's unionized workers and the American consumers all worked together to create the successful recovery the industry experienced.

And yes, credit is due to those responsible politicians who wanted to save all those union jobs and all those NON-union jobs related to the auto industry, and took the necessary risks to make it happen.
 

NeoV

Diamond Member
Apr 18, 2000
9,531
2
81
we are out billions on the auto-bailouts?

I was under the impression that all of that money has been paid back, plus interest, no?
 

cybrsage

Lifer
Nov 17, 2011
13,021
0
0
An ACTOR has integrity? LOL they only read what someone else wrote for them.

If Clint Eastwood had integrity, he would have forced the Ad to be filmed in Detroit.

instead, it was made in LA and New orleans.

Would YOU want to walk the streets of Detroit?
 

jackschmittusa

Diamond Member
Apr 16, 2003
5,972
1
0
CallMeJoe

Sorry. Always did have trouble remembering how to spell the names of mythical beings that I rarely write about. I always have to look up Leprechauns too.

michal1980

"An ACTOR has integrity? LOL they only read what someone else wrote for them."

I consider that to be a pretty ignorant statement on several levels. Do you use a chart to figure out all of the characteristics of people you lump together based on a single aspect of their lives? Must have hated That Ron the actor guy too.

I'd like to know how Eastwood gets demerits to his integrity from you simply because he opposed helping auto companies initially, but in hindsight sees that it was a good thing. Only an idiot holds the same opinion after observing new information that devalues the old opinion to having little merit.

I'm man enough to admit my error when opinions I've held looked poor in light of new information or new ways of thinking about them. I imagine Eastwood might be the same. From your post, I wonder if you see the wisdom of such a progression.