Political Cartoon Analysis Entry #4

Mega Millions Lottery and Newt

The title of this cartoon is, “Mega Millions Lottery and Newt,” and was created by Dave Granlund. This cartoon shows Newt Gingrich, one of the Republican hopefuls, holding a “Mega Millions” lottery ticket. Newt has a button on his suit with the words, “Newt 2012” written on it. Newt Gingrich is saying, “Had better odds of winning this than winning the white house!” while pointing to his lottery ticket. The significance of the title of this cartoon is that it is basically comparing Newt Gingrich to the odds of winning the Mega Millions lottery. It is really funny that Gingrich is saying that he has a better chance of winning the Mega Millions than he does winning the Presidential election. The artist definitely believes that Gingrich should stop trying to become the Republican candidate to run against Obama because he has no chance of winning. The odds of winning the Mega Millions lottery is about 1 to 1 billion and the fact that Newt believes he had a better chance of winning the Mega Millions lottery is basically saying that his chances of winning the white house are 1 to 1 trillion. I cannot really tell what ideological perspective is represented by the cartoonist because Gingrich is not even close to being in the lead as the Republican candidate. If this cartoon was to criticize Romney, then I would believe that the cartoonist is more of a liberal, but since this cartoon is technically an attack on Gingrich’s campaign it is difficult to tell. This cartoon relates to current politics because the Presidential election of 2012 is months away and Gingrich is a Republican candidate hoping to become the candidate that will run against Obama for the presidency. It also relates to life in general because this weekend was when the winning numbers for the Mega Millions lottery was released to the public. Many people have bought these lottery tickets because they hoped that they would win the extreme amount of money. Gingrich is hoping that he will win the “extreme” Republican nomination. This relates to class because throughout the year, we have been discussing controversy and strategies surrounding each candidate. This cartoon is somewhat ironic because Gingrich believes that he can pull through and become the Republican nomination so the fact that in the cartoon Gingrich is saying he had a better chance of winning the Mega Millions lottery than winning the white house is pretty ironic. Overall, the cartoonist was able to prove his point through the use of his creative artistic skills and provide a way to make people laugh during a time where people need to smile.

Romney Toys

The title of this cartoon is, “Romney Toys,” and was created by Darkow from the Daily Tribune. In this cartoon, there are a bunch of children’s toys such as an etch-a-sketch, slinky, yo-yo, slinky dog, play-doh, and operation. In the top right corner are the words, “Toy Story” and “If Mitt’s campaign can be compared to this toy…” with an arrow pointing to the etch-a-sketch. The other words are “What other toys apply?” With each toy, there is an explanation of how it relates to Romney. For the slinky, the cartoon says, “flip-flop all the time!” for the yo-yo it says, “His support for issues goes up and down!” Next to the slinky dog (which looks like Slink from all of the Toy Story movies) says, “Actually, you just tie him to the roof of your car and drive to Canada!” The words next to the container of Play-Doh are, “Takes any shape he wants!” Finally, next to the Operation game board, the words are, “Where Romneycare is nothing like Obama-Care!” At the bottom right corner are the words, “All toys made in China.” The title of this piece, “Romney Toys,” is significant to the cartoon because the cartoon is showing all of the toys that could be used to describe Romney, according to the cartoonist. It seems the artist is trying to portray the idea that Romney is too similar to too many toys which could show that Romney plays too many games with what he is doing. These toys represent Romney’s actions and the things he has done throughout the Republican nomination race. It is not like the thing described in the cartoon has never happened because they have happened. Many people believe Romney is a flip-flopper when it comes to the issues which are portrayed throughout the entire piece. Since Romney seems to be the front runner of the Republican candidates, it could be seen that the cartoonist is a democrat because it seems that the cartoonist is trashing Romney’s integrity and reputation. If the cartoonist were a Republican, I believe that the cartoonist would not want to give the Democrats any ammunition for if Romney does become the Republican nominee to run against Obama. It is pretty interesting that the cartoonist was able to find that many toys that could be compared to Romney. This could make people second guess themselves if they feel Romney would be the best Republican candidate to run against Obama. This cartoon relates to current political events because recently, Romney’s campaign was compared to an etch-a-sketch which could be a way to get Romney less supporters. This relates to class because like mentioned before, we have been discussing the actions of the Republican candidates during the primaries and caucuses that could lead to their fates, whether good or bad. This cartoon is somewhat ironic because Romney, an adult and hopeful for president, is being compared to toys which are typically played with by children. This could foreshadow that if Romney does become President, he will be used as a toy by Congress which could change the way voters view the system our government is run by. It is ironic that he is being compared to toys because he is trying to get a position of government that could be seen as the “parent” of this country. It seems ironic that Romney is being compared to toys. This cartoon overall portrays the views of many people in this country who are not Romney supporters and thus, the cartoonist did his job.