Many people saw this as an oblique Obama ad from a government bailed out Chrysler: "Yes, the last four years under Obama have been tough, but we'll come back 'in the second half'." A few even saw this as an endorsement of Obama by Mr. Eastwood.
I think that was part of the brilliance in having Clint make an appearance at the Republican convention. Last February, it looked like Dirty Harry may have been in the Obama camp. Now, it is clear that he is telling Mr. Obama, "a man's got to know his limitations!"
Apart from the gleeful images ( mine included) of Eastwood's character from Gran Torino telling Obama to "get off his lawn", there is something in the earlier sports analogy that caught my attention. A flaw in reasoning behind "halftime in America", if you will.
When it comes to presidential politics, four years is not "halftime", since there is no guarantee the same team will even be on the field after four years. No, four years is a full season. And typically, after a horrendous losing season, the team owners get themselves a new coach.
We hired a rookie coach in 2008. He talked a good game. He promised that the oceans would recede, the world would love us and there'd be jobs for anyone who wanted one, if only he could spend enough of your hard earned tax dollars to do it. And he spent more money than had ever been spent by one country, including ours, in the history of the world.
He benched two of our best players, Coal and Oil, and guaranteed a multimillion dollar contract to a rookie with bad hamstrings and a torn ACL - Solyndra. And the economic and employment scoreboards kept showing losses. Energy costs skyrocketed, which, incidentally may be the only promise Obama kept!
As our prospective coach, he promised to go through the budget playbook "line by line" to root out any weaknesses. Maybe he even took it with him on the hundred or so rounds of golf he played this season. Maybe if he'd spent more time in the clubhouse and less time with his clubs, he might have made a difference? Maybe Obama thought the ability to coach would seep in through osmosis from his golf clubs, or his chair in the Oval Office, or Air Force One.
His assistant coach, Harry Reid, never even drew up a playbook for the team for three of the the last four years of the season. Funny how they always blamed everything on the former coach, but they never replaced his budget playbook with a real one of their own! Who was it that said a failure to plan is a plan for failure?
Coach Barry went to all the social events coaches go to, attended all the gridiron dinners, even accepted a coaching award from some Norwegians before his team ever took the field, but never produced what he promised: a winning season.
Ladies and gentlemen, fellow team owners, frustrated fans, it's time to fire the coach and get a new one. One who knows that when you are dealing with the jobs and livelihoods and futures of every living American, it is just as important to keep score as it is how we play the game. Everyone in Obama's administration, from the lowliest unnecessary cabinet member to the the hundreds of Czars in charge of making sure all the Czars have their own tee time, received a "participation trophy" from Coach Obama. Most of them will leave with lavish pensions and will soon find cushy jobs lobbying their comrades who remain. But American needs to be about the task of winning. Because we will never "win the future" if we do not win the present.
Have a great retirement in Chicago, Coach Obama. You might apply as head coach of the Bears. I'm sure the Vikings and the Packers will both give you glowing letters of recommendation!
Cross posted Say Anything, LCR.
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