mariemburns

You nailed it, Barry. The object of the lampoon has to appear in the frame. With only the Obamas in the picture, the viewer/reader naturally reads them as the objects of the 'joke.' The cartoonist should have known that basic principle, & his editors should have at least intuited how every reader, sophisticated or naive, instinctively understands the tropes of satire. posted 07/17/2008 at 21:50:56

The McCain 'jokes' -- from making fun of rape victims to making fun of old people to making fun of innocent Iranians he'd like to bomb, maim & kill -- are indicative of a callous, heartless soul. Jokes at the expense of the weak are not funny; they're the stuff of bullies. George Bush is famous for putting people down by giving them demeaning nicknames; what McCain's 'jokes' portend is more of the same. A Washington Post article in Sunday's paper detailed how cruelly he cheated on & dumped his first wife after she was severely injured in a car accident. McCain's 'sense of humor' fits right into the profile of his 'youthful indiscretions.' This is not the kind of person I would ever invite into my home, & I don't want him sneaking in via the nightly news for the next 4 years. posted 07/16/2008 at 01:38:11

Racial profiling doesn't make sense, as many commenters have pointed out. I'm a 63-year-old light-complexioned white woman, but if I were to "travel to regions of the world known for terrorist activity, [and had] access to weapons or military training," government authorities should investigate me. posted 07/03/2008 at 10:16:33

Arianna nailed it. Obama is a smart guy. He waffled on Wright (he was for him before he was against him), but in the end, he heeded the reality check. Now we must get him to change course on far more important matters. Writers & thinkers like Arianna must keep pressuring him (as Wright did) to revert to the course that got him as far as it has in his "improbable journey." posted 07/03/2008 at 10:34:47

I think John is wrong on this one. When the Clintons were calling obama 'elite,' they did mean uppity because they felt deep in their hearts that Obama had not waited his turn, had not known his 'place.' But Rove's characterization of Obama as a cool country club regular is so laughable it defies codifying. I suspect, tho, that when Rove calls Obama 'arrogant,' he means aloof, & he would not be the first to comment that Obama does sometimes seem aloof (which may mean when he campaigns 15 hours a day, 'fatigue' looks like 'aloof.' Obama's aloofness, coolness to & dismissal of the usual Republican attacks is surely driving them mad. Besides, I think Rove is truly jealous of Obama, & why wouldn't he be? It's not a race thing. posted 06/28/2008 at 08:00:47

I'm delighted to hear Logan has been able to have some fulfilling relationships to balance the dangerous, demanding job she has. If the reporting is true about Couric, she should mind her own business. As should we. posted 06/28/2008 at 08:15:24

What a beautifully written, thoughtful, cogent piece. Thank you, Drew. You captured the evening. posted 06/05/2008 at 19:29:19

thank you for giving this story more exposure. the american public has no idea in how many ways the bush administration has trashed this nation. there are few americans who are less patriotic than the bush, cheney gang. posted 04/01/2008 at 17:39:21

you missed the biggest, most ironic whopper of all. clinton keeps saying every vote should count, so the race should go on forever. at the same time, she has told at least 2 major media venues that the PLEDGED delegates don't have to follow the will of the voters & can change candidates whenever they want. in other words, none of our votes counts for anything (unless they're for her, I guess), & the whole process is a joke on he way to the coronation. you have to be schizophrenic to follow her 'logic.'

today clinton said that obama wants her to get out of the race. (he was extensively quoted yesterday saying she should stay in the race as long as she wants.) I like to be charitable, but I'm beginning to think people who vote for this duplicitous woman are as delusional as she was when she 'saw' sniper fire in tuzla. posted 04/01/2008 at 12:36:25

Benedict's 'soft spot' for Nazis is well-documented. Within the past few years, he has claimed that WWII German soldiers were 'duped' by the Nazi machine: appearing at a ceremony to honor dead German soldiers & SS at a French cemetery he said, "their idealism and their obedience to the state were misused by an unjust government.' Jeremiah Wright's defender Martin Marty, a Lutheran pastor, has said that the pope's visit to the French cemetery was "a pretext to honor German soldiers, especially members of the Waffen S.S., by saying that they were 'simply following orders,' and leaving it to God to do the rest." When Benedict was Archbishop of Munich (the heart of the Nazi movement) he had little to say about the Holocaust & didn't visit the nearby Dachau death camp 'because there were no important anniversaries when he was archbishop.' He also claims his membership in the Hitler Youth Group & his German army service were "impossible to avoid," even tho many German Catholics did find it "possible" to resist the system. My husband's first wife was a Belgian Catholic & -- at constant risk to her life -- she participated in saving 2,000 Jewish children from the death camps. Pope Benedict was a few years younger than she, so maybe he couldn't have saved 2,000 Jews, but I don't believe he was a "victim" -- he was a Nazi collaborator.

Sean Hannity needs to chew on that before he demands Barack Obama leave his church. posted 03/28/2008 at 16:15:15

I'd forgot about Bill on Rush's show. Thanks for reminding us & for putting two & two together. That was a real "they'll do anything" moment. We had a similar situation in Florida. Besides the fact that a lot of us old fogies never heard of Obama, the only other thing besides the primary that was on the ballot was an important constitutional amendment that affected ONLY HOMEOWNERS. So that meant poor people & young people (nonhomeowners) -- Obama's (& Edwards') biggest base -- stayed home because they had no reason to vote since the media kept telling us our primary vote wouldn't count. Then ol' Hillary shows up at some big cities the day before the election posing in front of palm trees & saying she's so glad to be in the beautiful state of Florida & she's only here for some fundraising so she's not campaigning. posted 03/26/2008 at 10:34:20

"She's smart enough to realize that dragging the Rev. Wright matter back into the news makes her look petty and despicable...."

Actually, she's not. The previous commentator is onto something. Bill & Hillary Clinton are co-dependent sociopaths. They feed each other's belief that they don't have to play by the same rules the rest of us do, & so long as they're succeeding, they're right. A bald-faced lie is a 'blip' or at worst a 'mispoken' moment; an sly attack is the listeners' fault because they 'didn't understand'; a frontal character attack is 'discussing the issues.' It is up to Democratic voters in the next several primaries to provide Hillary & Bill the mental health care they need by voting Hillary out of a race she cannot win. Pennsylvania Democrats who believe in their party's ideals & ideas, no matter how they feel about Sen. Clinton, have an obligation, as patriots, to vote for Obama & move the party forward to a victory across the board in November. posted 03/26/2008 at 10:25:42