I'm having a hard time getting behind this one

I don't deny any guy the desire or opportunity to take his wife out on a date. But when that date includes Air Force One, 600 police officers, and untold layers of visible and invisible security, that's a pretty expensive date. It's not the cost that bothers me, honestly that date won't make one bit of difference in the trillions of dollars of national debt, or my taxes, even. It's the idea that this date couldn't wait until the President was in NY on official business, so that all this trouble and expense wouldn't be incurred unnecessarily. It's a little bit like rubbing this privilege in the face of people who can't afford to go out to dinner or a Broadway show, and using my tax dollars to do so. And that's not cool.

This ad from General Motors makes me feel the same way. GM didn't go bankrupt by selling intelligently designed, fuel efficient cars that people wanted to buy. Apparently they've finally figured that out and produced this spot to tell us what other car companies have known for years. The production and media costs for this ad are certainly in the millions of dollars. Is that the best way to start spending that shiny new government money? GM should wait until they've got something to show us, like new models that define their message of "leaner, meaner, faster, smarter". That would be their official business. Then they can spend millions of dollars on advertising, which would be their date night. You and I now own an infinitesimal bit of GM, and this feels like my face getting rubbed by GM spending my money irresponsibly.

Also, GM might want to check with Ford before touting themselves as the re-birther of the American car, since Ford is not bankrupt, has not filed for bankruptcy, and has been quietly building hybrids and fuel efficient models, getting the whole car building thing a lot better than GM or Chrysler recently.