THE WEEK IN EDITORIAL CARTOONS
This weekly diary takes a look at the past week's important news stories from the perspective of our leading editorial cartoonists (including a few foreign ones) with a bit of commentary added in by me.
When evaluating a cartoon, ask yourself these questions:
- Does a cartoon add to my existing knowledge and help crystallize my thinking about the issue depicted?
- Does the cartoonist have any obvious biases that distort reality?
- Is the cartoonist reflecting prevailing public opinion or trying to shape it?
The answers will help determine the effectiveness of the cartoonist's message.
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The Incredibly Shrinking Grand Old Party
- CARTOON OF THE WEEK
"Keep your friends close...but your enemies closer."
Michael Corleone, The Godfather Part II
Pat Bagley, Salt Lake Tribune
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- The concept of 'The 100 Days' comes from the period when Napoleon Bonaparte returned from exile in the Island of Elba in Tuscany, Italy to Paris. For Napoleon, 1815 was a particularly bad year as it marked the beginning of the end for him. On the other hand, President Barack Obama -- not unlike FDR -- fared much better in his first 100 days as the 44th President of the United States
Mike Keefe, Denver Post
Paresh Nath, Khaleej Times (UAE)
How does a leader burdened with so many problems remain so calm? And at a time when the opposition party is united in opposing his political agenda?
Jimmy Margulies, New Jersey Record
R.J. Matson, New York Observer and Roll Call
Mark Streeter, Savannah Morning News
Jim Morin, Miami Herald
He does it effectively by using what Teddy Roosevelt referred to as the "bully pulpit." The White House offers its occupant a remarkable platform from which to not only set the agenda but also to dominate news coverage in the 24-hours news environment we live in today. It helps if that leader is blessed with incredible rhetorical skills, is well-liked, and has unquestioned integrity and public ethics. Eventually, the country (and even his predecessors) will approve of this approach in difficult times both at home and abroad
Clay Bennett, Chattanooga Times Free Press
Steve Benson, Arizona Republic
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- When facing a popular leader, what should the opposition political party do? It seems to me that the first thing it ought to do would be to let go of past strategy and tactics that failed miserably and only contributed to its defeat and political humiliation. Hating someone is not a positive message on which to rebuild a political party. Old habits die hard though
Kal, Economist magazine (UK)
Bob Englehart, Hartford Courant
The G.O.P. has been politically ill for at least the past few years. It has constantly overreached with disastrous political implications. Yet, it refuses to take a long hard look at itself in the mirror. I wonder whatever happened to the Permanent Republican Majority
Bob Englehart, Hartford Courant
When faced with extinction, even the old Soviet Union under Mikhail Gorbachev's leadership switched course and initiated a policy which came to be known in foreign policy circles as 'New Thinking.' And even then, it didn't survive. It is obvious to everyone that the Republicans are having an identity crisis
Steve Benson, Arizona Republic
Chip Bok, Akron Beacon-Journal
Looking towards the future...
Christo Komarnitski, Sega (Bulgaria)
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- So, once a Neanderthal, always a Neanderthal, huh? It seems that way. As "Dandy Don" Meredith used to sing on Monday Night Football, "Turn out the lights... the party's over!"
Dan Wasserman, Boston Globe
Lisa Benson, Victor Valley Daily Press
But, wait a minute! What exactly do we have here? Arlen Specter is Churchillian in one respect: both Specter and Winston Churchill switched political allegiances a few times. Is it principle or political opportunism that causes elected officials to switch sides?
Signe Wilkinson, Philadelphia Daily News
Henry Payne, Detroit News
Whatever Specter's motives, it is quite obvious that this is the absolute last thing the Republican Party needed. After two major defeats in 2006 and 2008, the party is in desperate need of an extreme makeover. Can you teach an old elephant new tricks?
Tony Auth, Philadelphia Inquirer
Pat Oliphant, Universal Press Syndicate
Ed Stein, United Media, formerly of the Rocky Mountain News
So, what will they do about it? Again... old habits die hard!
Mike Lane, Baltimore Sun
Jim Morin, Miami Herald
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- The almost century-old romance between the American consumer and the automobile is not over but the marriage between drivers and the American auto industry has been on the rocks for several decades. Another casualty in this frayed relationship was GM's announcement that it was ceasing production in its Pontiac division
Kirk Walters, Toledo Blade
Cameron (Cam) Cardow, Ottawa Citizen
Are you lonesome tonight
do you miss me tonight
Are you sorry we drifted apart
Does your memory stray to a bright sunny day
When I kissed you and called you sweetheart
Do the chairs in your parlor seem empty and bare
Do you gaze at your doorstep and picture me there
Is your heart filled with pain, shall I come back again
Tell me dear, are you lonesome tonight.
Elvis Presley, Are You Lonesome Tonight?
Steve Benson, Arizona Republic
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- As much as I love blogs, newspapers are not going away like the Pontiac cars, are they? I sure hope not
Steve Kelley, New Orleans Times-Picayune
"The blog also ariseth, and the blog goeth down, and hasteth to his place where he arose."
Ecclesiastes 1:5
Dan Wasserman, Boston Globe
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- Finally, is Barack Obama lucky or what? The worst news for the Republican Party: the terrorist fist jab of yesterday is fast becoming a socially acceptable means of greeting one other. As those brainiacs at FOX News might say, "Whatever!"
Gary Markstein, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
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A Note About the Diary Poll
The Power of Slang
Slang is generally a bit wittier and cleverer than Standard American English according to Tom Dalzell. Slang is everywhere he says — and youth slang, in particular, exerts enormous power.
In 1892, Walt Whitman described slang as "the start of fancy, imagination and humor, breathing into its nostrils the breath of life."
Slang’s popularity and power with speakers of American English should not come as a surprise. By design, slang is wittier and more clever than standard English. As a species that seems to have a genetic inclination to linguistic creativity, we humans (to borrow again from Whitman) seem to find endearing slang’s "rich flashes of humor and genius and poetry." With slang, each generation or subculture/counterculture group has the chance to shape and propagate its own lexicon, and in so doing to exercise originality and imagination. The end result is a lively, playful body of language that is at times used for no other reasons than that it is fun to use and identifies the speaker as clever and witty.
Ever since Daily Kos came into being in 2002, a number of cleverly-used or mysterious words have become part of our everyday vocabulary. Some of these words may confound many of the newbies but those of us who've been "present at the creation" simply chuckle and fully comprehend what the diarist or commentator is really trying to say.
Nothing in politics is probably more effective than either trying to mock or be completely dismissive of one's political opponent. Even if politics is a contact sport, you can disarm and render your opponent largely useless by effectively employing humor which, in turn, utterly undermines the opposing argument. Over the past seven years -- and mostly in a good-natured way -- so has the case been here on this blog.
So, as you contemplate answering the poll, fess up!