WSJ:

The Clint Eastwood ad during the Super Bowl is causing a stir in political circles.

Our colleague Steve Goldstein at MarketWatch writes at the Political Watch blog:

It could be viewed as a simple celebration of the recovery of bankrupt Chrysler. But the political overtones were easy to see as well: “Halftime in America” could be interpreted as a rallying call for a second term for President Barack Obama, who pushed ahead with a bailout of Chrysler and General Motors (read more on GM’s financial results on WSJ.com) despite objections from Republicans, including his likely presidential opponent, Mitt Romney.

A view from the left:

Filmmaker Michael Moore was a bit more direct (and apologies for the Twitterese): “Your sermon seemed 2 b a call 2 give O his ‘second half.’”

A view from the right:

“I think Clint Eastwood’s credentials as a conservative have been overrated for some time,” added David Limbaugh, the brother of Rush and himself a conservative author.

The ad itself:

Eastwood is not the only entertainment god helping Obama. Madonna's halftime extravaganza clearly added a bunch of jobs to the recovering economy:

Last week we learned that the economy added 243,000 jobs in January. Now we know that roughly a third of them were jobs in Madonna’s halftime show.

...In the old days, a football halftime show featured a marching band that awed and astonished the crowd by playing instruments while somehow not colliding with anything. Now, a marching band is just a tiny element of a much larger production with a Greco-Roman-Egyptian-Sumerian-Babylonian theme. Over-the-top is the baseline, and then you add elements, including potty-mouthed rappers, cheerleaders and a guy bouncing on a high wire.

I really wanted that bouncing man to fall. But my bad vibes failed to penetrate the screen and disrupt that cord just enough for the sudden slip into the history of embarrassment.