Dirty Harry has turned against the GOP.
Thats basically the message in last nights episode of The Rachel Maddow Show, during which guest host Chris Hayes examined the popular Chrysler Super Bowl ad featuring Oscar-winning director Clint Eastwood.
His conclusion: Eastwoods sideways endorsement of the auto bailouts punches conservatives where it hurts right in the Reagan.
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President Ronald Reagan loved Eastwood and his Dirty Harry image, and even occasionally dropped Eastwoods most famous movie lines in public. Thats because Eastwoods popular tough-guy image played right into the Republican narrative that they were coming to reassert American strength after President Jimmy Carter had so emasculated the presidency.
Eastwood was even in an anti-drug commercial featuring Nancy Reagan, and did a number of other anti-drug spots on the Reagan administrations behalf.
But now that Eastwood is singing a different tune, and praising one of President Barack Obamas policies on an issue where his likely Republican challenger goes in the exact opposite direction, conservatives have been sent reeling.
If you doubt the potential effectiveness of this message, if you doubt its political potency, all you have to do is look at the conservative backlash against the Clint Eastwood ad today, Hayes said.