promoting the death of the US auto industry - that has backfired big time.
The ad brought it all home to Michigan. I'm lovin' it.

The way they see it, Eastwood should have read the anti-union, anti-bailout memo before praising auto workers, so he deserves the flak he gets from them.

completely goes against the GOP narrative

They are trying to set up some meme in the minds of the voters that they can work into a campaign theme. They need to distract and divide as they always do.

It's even funnier when you consider Eastwood's an Eisenhower conservative/social Libertarian, an ideal that the GOP would likely have far more success with than the whack-a-loon, anti-science, anti-worker, anti-woman, anti-gay and anti-progress model they're running headlong into the abyss with now.