The Carter II Curse Continues

It’s funny sometimes. Obama can’t win for losing.

On Super Bowl Sunday, we saw one of the things Chrysler did with the billion-plus dollars they took from us. They created a self-serving ad featuring Clint Eastwood. The narration started with, “It’s halftime in America.” Clint went on to tell us how hard times were; how badly things were going. And he said we were going to get off the canvas, suck it up, walk it off, improvise, adapt, overcome, et cetera. We were going to WIN, and the reason is…uh…okay, here it is: we’re AMERICA. Like that’s a magical word that prevents failure.

It turns out two people involved in the ad (Michael Tabtabai and Jimm Lasser) have a history of working for Obama. Big shock there. Clint Eastwood seems to think the ad was politically neutral, but it was clearly an effort to rehabilitate a failed Presidency. Unfortunately, it works better as a condemnation of everything Obama stands for.

Let’s go back to 1984, to the ad Chrysler plagiarized. Ronald Reagan was running for reelection. He was extremely popular. His strategies were working. He had a good record to run on. Life had been miserable under Carter. Interest rates were over 20%. Inflation was out of control. We were the laughingstock of the globe. Under Reagan, that had turned around, and everyone knew it. So his team put out an ad surprisingly similar to the Obama halftime ad. The theme was “morning in America.” We had come out from the dark night of the Carter administration. Here is the ad.

I’m not going to embed the Obama ad for comparison. You can find it online. You’ve probably seen it already. What a contrast! Reagan’s message? “Things are WAY better than they were four years ago. Let’s keep moving in the right direction!” Obama’s message? “Things STINK, but I’m only halfway done! Give me more time, and my long-discredited policies of socialism, borrowing, and central planning are going to work out!” After all, they worked so well in East Germany, the USSR, North Vietnam, North Korea, Cuba…

The difference is obvious. In the morning, the night is over. Your problems are behind you. A bright new day awaits. At halftime, you’re still in the middle of the battle, and under Obama, you’re LOSING!

Not only did Obama’s surrogates steal from Reagan; they implicitly admit Obama’s record is inferior!

Maybe Obama had nothing to do with this. Doesn’t matter. His team was behind it, in one form or another.

It’s hard for me to imagine a funnier way to condemn your performance as President. You never ask people, “Are you better off today than you were four years ago?” when the answer is “NO.”

Eastwood shouldn’t have said it was halftime. He should have said, “GAME OVER.” Or “sudden death.” Although that would have annoyed the Secret Service.

The obvious self-incriminating nature of the ad will blow over most people’s heads. People aren’t bright enough to pick up on irony. It has to be pointed out to them.

If I were Obama, I think I’d want to run off and hide. Maybe that’s why he goes on vacation eight times a year.