I didn’t draw any political cartoons last week. But if you think about it, everything is political. This dog talking is Santorum, and he’s saying what Mitt wishes Santorum would say. Go ahead, you get the ball. Its not my turn.
I am hoping there is a third dog named Obama who will rush in and beat him to it.
I just was listening to Rachel Maddow commentary on the fact that last night the Newt Campaign released files on his work with Freddy-Mac. But: they couldn’t find some of them. And apparently, there are no notes, records, written or otherwise, about what he actually did for them. Did the dog eat them? What do we do with Newt, then? Do we give him another chance? Do we mark his grade down, do we call Callista and see what the truth is? None of this will work, sadly.
Simulataneously, I was looking through my files for a cartoon to post today. I did this one last week with no obvious thought in mind of politics. But maybe subconsciously I was thinking about politics. I feel like we are in grade school with the GOP field. Doesn’t each of those guys remind you of some guy you hated in High School?
Newt, the know-it-all tubby creep who always seems to wear the same clothes and talks back to teachers;
Mitt, the awkward rich kid who thinks everyone loves him and who you catch looking in the mirror frequently,
Ron Paul, the nerd who won’t stop telling you all about stuff he thinks is important because he knows of no other way to talk to a girl,
Santorum, the religious nut who is looking for people to tattle on.
It would be fun, if it weren’t so scary. No, actually it is fun, I take that back.
If I were a Republican, I would find Mr. Huntsman very attractive. It’s not news that he’s classically handsome, and if I were a Republican, I would find it difficult not to gravitate towards him. If only for his looks. What else is there to go on? Why not make a choice based on looks? Heck, at this stage of the game, they are all not telling the truth anyway.
The lukewarm attitude towards Mitt reminds me of a cartoon of mine that The New Yorker published in 1983. You can just insert Mitt Romney’s name in the fortune cookie caption. It’s about the Democratic Presidential nominee Walter Mondale, and the cartoon reflects the tepid feelings towards Fritz by the Democratic party. I don’t recall there being such a circus back then as we have now, however. Also, parenthetically, this cartoon was my second sale to The New Yorker, and my first political cartoon for them.
Hopefully, GOP presidential candidate Herman Cain will come out and explain his behavior and the charges of sexual harassment, and we can move on. And maybe he can move on. I realize we don’t know for sure who is telling the truth, but the numbers of women alleging this behavior makes it seem like there was a pattern on his part. My sense is the GOP wants him to go; it’s just his supporters–whoever they are–are sending him money. Not to mention the wealthy Koch brothers organization.
In any event–sexual harassment is real for many, and needs to end. There, I’m done with my rant.
Kids pick up words they hear their parents say, and I can imagine “occupy” is a word being bantered around in a lot of households right now. The Occupy Wall Street Movement is fascinating–my cartoon is a play on words. The OWS folks may not have started with a plan, but it sounds like they are getting one. These two kids will probably just play.
Sometimes ideas spring from just one word. But it has to be the right word. Doing a cartoon around the word “uprising” would be difficult. Plus, it’s not a very interesting word. “Revolution” could lead to a lot of things. But the word “protest” is more malleable, it can fit into many situations. It’s not an interesting word, but it is a buzz-word in the public’s mind right now, so using it at this moment in time works.
While the above idea is not really what I want to say about all the turmoil that is going on in the Middle East, you sometimes just have to go with the flow as to where words take you. Political cartoons in The New Yorker are often oblique, and are about how events affect people often far removed from the events. And unlike editorial cartoons, they are not necessarily about my opinion. I am an observer.
I often say that cartoonists are sponges, soaking up all that is around us and then squeezing it out into ideas. But we are also grabbers, snatching ideas and words–I envision a butterfly net– as they float in the air around us. We put them on our papers and mold them into cartoons.
cartoon originally published on womensEnews.org
