Political Cartoon #4:

1. Randall Enos drew this cartoon.

2. Key objects:

• Mitt Romney and seven arms: This cartoon plays off of Romney's "$10,000 Bet" to Rick Perry in the debate on December 10, 2011. Perry made accusations against Romney for supporting mandates (based off of the first edition of Romney's book), and Romney responded with this $10,000 bet to "prove" that it's not true. The cartoon is meant to highlight Romney's desperations as he sinks lower in the polls, perhaps relying on his vast sums of money that the other candidates lack.

3.  The cartoon uses caricature to show Romney's desperation, with his arms flailing at everyone to

try to help him out. 

4. The cartoon addresses Romney's $10,000 bet to Perry. The situation was entirely overblown, though many felt that Romney's quick ability to just hand over $10,000 left him out of touch with the average Iowan (who probably makes that much in a year). 

5. The cartoon is showing Romney's desperation, and also shows how he's trying to buy his way out of tough situations. 

6. The cartoonist is definitely anti-Romney. 

Political Cartoon #3:

1. Rick Mckee drew this cartoon for the Augusta Chronicle.
2. Key objects:

• Santa Claus: It's Santa. Self-evident. 
• An elf: One of Santa's helpers. Also evident. 
• A USPS worker: With the proliferation of computer-based communication and cell phones, the use for snail mail has declined. With it, the USPS has lost more and more revenue each year. However, because it's a government corporation, it's miraculously not bankrupt yet! Even so, the government is looking to find ways to save money, and thinking about cutting mail deliveries on certain days of the week. This cartoon satirizes the situation by showing that cutting mail days will, in fact, have an impact on the mail system. 

3.  The cartoon satirizes the situation by showing that in cutting mail, the most serious thing affected is that children can't get their letters to Santa on time. 4. The cartoon deals with the decline of snail mail and the USPS. 
5. The cartoon's message is that the USPS isn't entirely necessary. 
6. The cartoon demonstrates that the USPS isn't an integral part of everyday life-- the most serious thing that could happen is that during the holidays, letters won't be delivered to Santa on time. (Who, gasp, doesn't actually exist. Sorry for that spoiler.)

http://chronicle.augusta.com/opinion/cartoons/2011-12-09/rick-mckee-editorial-cartoon

The Obama Update (Question #3)

In terms of job approval, Obama has 43% of the population in support, while 50% disapprove. Not too great when the majority of the population doesn't approve of the president's efforts. Although he was not responsible for the economic downturn, many feel that he's not doing enough to reverse the recession. While Republicans control the House, Obama has run into several roadblocks in trying to pass legislation to stimulate the economy. Many also are torn about his controversial healthcare plans, thinking that the economy is an issue that is more important to focus on than healthcare.

Of the recent Gallup polls, Obama is tied with Romney, the GOP frontrunner, for the 2012 election results. However, as Gingrich gains momentum, there's a possibility these numbers could change. Right now it's difficult to tell if Obama will be reelected because there's no one GOP candidate. Once a candidate is nominated, then there might be a greater chance that Obama won't win reelection. When Perry was the frontrunner, Obama's poll results showed that he would win reelection. As of right now, I would say that Obama has a fair chance in winning reelection.

Political Cartoon #2:

1. Tom Toles drew this political cartoon for the Washington Post. 
2.  

• An elephant dressed up as Santa Claus: the GOP
• A man sitting on the elephant's lap: Mitt Romney   

     3. Tom Toles satirizes Mitt Romney's flip-flopping and pandering by making him appear childlike (placing him in "Santa's" lap) to show his juvenile voting tactics. His dialogue, "What would YOU like me to ask for?" also satirizes the situation. 

     4. The cartoon deals with the ongoing GOP nomination, in which Romney is falling behind in. It also was drawn when the Union Leader endorsed Newt Gingrich, highlighting his tactics of sucking up to voters and the GOP. 

     5. The cartoon was drawn to criticize Romney's political tactics- that he plays up to voters' desires to gain votes, regardless of whether he agrees with these beliefs or not. 

    6. The cartoonist doesn't seem to be favorable towards Romney (obviously, because he's criticizing him).




http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/tom-toles-draws-republicans/2011/10/18/gIQAcv6qxL_gallery.html#photo=2

Mitt Romney for the Republican Nomination

    Although Mitt Romney has been leading in the polls, it's beginning to become questionable as to whether he will gain the Republican nomination. Until now, he has been the forerunning candidate, but now seems to be head to head with Newt Gingrich, who was quite behind up until the last few weeks.
    I think that Romney has the potential to win the presidential election (he has such a broad set of beliefs), but at the moment, has little hope of even gaining the Republican nomination. Many claim that he's wishy-washy with his politics, and is really much more liberal-leaning than conservative-leaning. As governor of Massachusetts, one would expect him to gain the popular support of the northeastern region, but after New Hampshire's Union Leader endorsed Newt Gingrich, support for Romney isn't looking too good. The Union Leader claimed that it would rather endorse a candidate that it doesn't agree completely with, than a candidate who changes beliefs to gain popular support; and I'm sure that many people agree with this same belief.
   Luckily, unlike his counterparts, Romney hasn't made too many huge social gaffs, but then again, he also took himself off the radar in the last couple of debates, saying little, and therefore has nothing to be used against him. However, lying low has seem to hurt his reputation as well.

Question of the Week #1: Is there hope for Rick Perry?

     Although GOP candidate Rick Perry has been the forerunner in election polling in the past couple of months, the support has severely dwindled. At this point, he doesn't seem as if he stands a chance against any of the candidates: certainly not Romney, but even Cain and Gingrich have rallied up support despite their recent political scandals.
     However, one thing is true, and it's that Rick Perry is incredibly charismatic. He's relatively attractive, he's tall, he has that southern Texan twang. During the past Republican debates, he's also been a little sassy, which I'm sure some (myself included) find annoying, but many find that it's amusing, genuine, and make him more relatable. In addition, he's the governor of Texas. Although the residents of Texas are majority conservative, the state is gigantic, meaning that he has a lot of support just by being from that state.
     His policies are rather average; there's nothing incredibly appealing except his proposal on a flat tax. However, lately he has received  much criticism about how he's a more moderate Republican, based on his immigration policies. On other issues, he's incredibly conservative. This wishy-washiness is not a good start at getting a nomination- he should have stuck to one set of political ideologies till he was chosen as the GOP presidential candidate, then he could probably afford to branch out in beliefs.

Political Cartoon #1:

1. Tom Toles drew this cartoon for the Washington Post.
2. Key objects:

• Two Chinese men: The one with the label that reads "China" is most likely Hu Jintao, the president of the People's Republic of China. The other man is most likely an advisor. Evidently, both men represent China. 
• A kangaroo with boxing gloves: The kangaroo represents Australia, where President Obama recently established a military presence to keep tags on China. The kangaroo reads, "Australia Military Base."
• President Obama: The man in the pouch of the kangaroo is clearly President Obama. He is extending his arm out towards the Chinese men as a sign of peace, despite the fact that there is a kangaroo with boxing gloves (a sign that it could attack) and underneath, someone commanding to "Release the platypuses!" Obama is putting on a front of peace, but at the same time, he's putting up his guard against a possible threat of China. 

3. Tom Toles uses caricature to exaggerate all the motions of Obama (an extremely outstretched arm) showing that the action is forced and not entirely genuine.
4. The cartoon deals with Obama's recent decision to establish a military presence on Australia to keep China in check.
5. The cartoon's message is that we're openly being suck-ups to China.
6. The cartoon doesn't contain any evident bias, though it seems as if Toles is over-exaggerating the actions of Obama to show that the friendship with China is forced and not entirely genuine. He doesn't seem overtly critical of either country.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/tom-toles-cartoons-for-november-2011/2011/10/17/gIQA1iutZM_gallery.html#photo=1