Political Cartoon #1

1. Daryl Cagle drew this cartoon for msnbc.com
2. Key objects:

• Big elephant:  Represents the public, who's attention has just recently shifted to newly scrutinize a new victim.
• Newt Gingrich:  Is the new victim.  The public will soon shift it's attention to someone else, after this ant has been thoroughly fried.
• Smoking dead bodies:  These are the other GOP candidates who have had their brief rise in ratings and intense media attention.  They now dead; the fickle public has found a new toy to play with: Newt.
• Magnifying glass:  This represents the tools which the public uses to scrutinize its new victim.  These methods are:
• Televised debates.
• Investigations into corruption (*cough cough* Illegally working for Freddie and Mac)
• Looking at personal history: 2 divorces

3.  Strategies and Devices

• Symbolism:  The elephant represents the Republican voting body.
• Ridicule:  The fact that Newt is squinting, sitting on the ground, and is rather large.

4.  The current event that this cartoon deals with is New Gingrich's recent rise in the polls.  It is quite possible that, like the many other GOP candidates, he may be unable to sustain this rise.

5.  The cartoonist's message is that people need to think more before they decide that "Hey, I want to vote for this guy!".  Many of the brief spikes for the various candidates were a result of those candidates doing something dramatic and over-the-top to gain national media attention.  The public is amused and takes a liking to this.  An example was when Cain declared that everyone in the United States should be taxed a flat rate of 9%, throwing away the progressive system of taxing the rich more than the poor.  A lot of people thought this was really cool and thought that Cain was the best candidate, but then soon realized that he knew NOTHING about anything else besides his precious flat tax (when asked about foreign policy, he gave a blank stare for 10 seconds, on national tv.)

6.  The cartoonist believes that Newt does not stand much of a chance to Obama.

Here is a lovely animation of the horse race between the different Republican potential nominees: animation