Clint Eastwood for President

I think I've found my candidate for President:



This is a Chrysler ad. And if "thanks for the bailout" is one of its messages, I can only respond "you're welcome." That's not to say that I supported the bailout, but I appreciate the thank you nonetheless.

As to Karl Rove and certain other windbags who think this is some sort of subliminal Obama reelection ad, I have this thought to offer:



Now it happens I drive a Chrysler, a Jeep Cherokee that I bought in December 1992. It has been such a high-quality American-made product that I haven't needed another in these last 19 years. No airbags or electric door locks. You want to open the window, you turn the hand crank. They don't make them like they used to.

Here is the Super Bowl ad Chrysler ran a year ago with Eminem largely expounding on the same themes:



YouTube shows 4,404,648 views so far on this year's Eastwood ad and 14,354,069 views for Eminem. The bad news for Chrysler is that the GM Silverado ad at this year's Super Bowl did better at 5,745,841 views so far:



GM, you can keep your new Silverado, in the event of apocalypse I'll take my Jeep with its limited electronics.

By the way, the Bush administration authorized the $17.4 billion bailout for GM and Chrysler in December 2008. The incoming Obama administration was left to the task of administering the bailout. I do respect Ford, which didn't take a bailout. Maybe my next vehicle will be a Ford.

The problem the auto industry faced in 2008 and 2009 was not of their creation. Most people can't buy a car without a loan. And the banks stopped lending, not because credit risks on auto loans went south, but because the banks went south themselves by losing so much money in the housing market collapse.

Update: As usual, Iowahawk kicks it between the goalposts with A Fistful of Rebates.