The only thing missing from the Super Bowl Chrysler car ad was a picture of the president at the end saying, “I’m Barack Obama and I authorized this message.”

The whacky conspiracy-theory-of-history crowd, and you know who you are, will have a field day with this.

In case you were visiting another planet, the Chrysler spot (see below) featured the gravelly voice of none other than Dirty Harry a.k.a. Clint Eastwood as he walked in the dark foreboding shadows of some freeway underpass.

“It’s half-time in America…people are out of work and they’re hurting,” he whispers.

He adds “Detroit knows something about this (but) now the Motor City is fighting back.”

And before the two minute spot is over, the Clintster is miraculously reassuring everyone “Detroit is showing us it can be done” and “The world’s gonna hear our engines roar.”

It’s a powerful spot, uplifting, and right out of the Obama re-election playbook.

In fact the shouts of joy you heard on Sunday came from the White House.

Which is why the conspiracy folks will step in with this: Since the president bailed out Chrysler, it is only fitting that the car maker return the favor with this thinly disguised re-elect Obama car commercial seen by millions of folks.

Never mind that Chrysler probably didn’t have that in mind. The anti-Obama cabal will have none of that.

So both the company and el presidente will be blasted for being in cahoots.

But all is not rosy for the Obama team. This spot may play well in the Midwest where auto factories abound and citizens have a brain. But recall that over half of the rest of the country wanted GM and Chrysler to go in the tank. And they argue it was wrong for two

presidents, Bush and Obama, to step in.

So the fact that Detroit is leading the nation back to prosperity means less to those Americans.



The bad news is, they won't be buying any Jeeps and won't be renting any Eastwood movies either.

Tim Skubick, host of "Off the Record" on WKAR-TV, is MLive.com's political columnist.