I cannot resist the editorial cartoon any longer. As a lover of parody and political comedy, I am drawn to the editorial cartoon's unique combination of the two. To ensure that I do not offend one political party over the other (or, at least offend in equal measure), I have chosen recent editorial cartoons that critique both parties.
The first is a parody of a well-known and well-published photograph. The hug between McCain and Bush portrays their close friendship and what others see as their closely related politics. An easy way to discredit McCain in this year's campaign has been to remind the public of his alignment with Bush's policies, and this photograph symbolizes that relationship. Reader's must know this photograph for the cartoon to make sense. However, the reader must also be familiar with the "Bush/Rove Campaign Tactics." Rove is known for negative campaigning--aiming to destroy the opponent instead of elevating his actual candidate. McCain has always said that he is against this type of campaigning, and for most of the year has stayed away from it. Yet, in the last weeks, he, Palin, and his campaign ads have attempted to tie Obama with "terrorism," thus, using scare tactics to degrade his opponent's status. The editorial cartoon therefore demonstrates that McCain is now "embracing" the very negative tactics that he has condemned the Bush administration for using in the past. Apparently, the Bush/McCain relationship is stronger than we thought.
In the second cartoon, the artist satirizes Nancy Pelosi's use of the phrase "reaching across the aisle." There has been a lot of pressure on Congress in the last few weeks to work on initiatives that will stave off an economic collapse. To accomplish this task, Republicans and Democrats must work together--must figuratively "reach across the aisle" to their political foes. When the first proposed bill did not pass, Pelosi (Speaker of the House) spoke at a conference in which she praised her colleagues' (Democrats) abilities to work in a bi-partisan manner and reach across the aisle. However, it was difficult to listen to this speech and not hear her criticize the Republican House members. Some questioned how much "reaching across the aisle" she was really doing. Wasn't she just trying to make her own party look good? This cartoon sympathizes with that idea. She is "reaching across the aisle," but only to "thwak" her adversaries, the Republicans represented by the elephant.
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