Wouldn't Touch It With a Ten-Foot Poll

Dick Locher, 11/29/11:

Locher, who has been a political cartoonist all his long adult life, stakes out the provocative position that no one really cares about politics to begin with.

A Mitt Without an Endorsement Is Like a Fish Without a Bicycle

Robert Ariall, 11/28/11:

Not getting the endorsement of a newspaper called the Union Leader is instant death to a Republican candidate, because republicans love unions so much.

Civil Disobedience, Washington-Style

Matt Bors, 11/28/11:

There are two possibilities:

1) Occupy Wall Street is a revolutionary army, dedicated to violently overthrowing the lawfully constituted government of these American colonies, thus justifying any police violence against them.

2) If the British had just hired a couple of UC Davis cops, we'd all be singing "God Save the Queen" today.

You'll Shoot Your Eye Out!

Paul Fell, 11/28/11:

Yes, Virginia, it's true: the Congressional "supercommittee" failed because Santa Claus punched it in the face.

Anyone wanting to make any guesses as to what Santa is supposed to represent -- please, be my guest.

It's Not Bad at All, Really. Maybe It Just Needs a Little Love.

Lisa Benson, 11/25/11:

So..."Capitol Hill" has no idea how large the US economy is, until it arrives on a flatbed?

And the biggest economy in the world -- $15+ trillion dollars -- is a Charlie Brown tree?

I also don't see a punch line here, or anything funny -- unless "Capitol Hill's" line is meant as a reference to the (decade-gone) dot-com boom.

Tent-ative Support

Ingrid Rice, 11/24/11:

That's right -- the Occupy hippies are camping out because they have nowhere else to live! (Guess they've all been kicked out of their mother's basements since the last round of insults.)

They're not picking locations near important institutions or major public spaces, nope -- they just need space to crash!

Always the Fault of the Media, Natch

Chuck Asay, 11/24/11:

That's right! Screw compromise! Demand everything you've ever wanted, and threaten to shut down the government if you don't get it!

Only wussies ever give in on anything.

Whenever Anything Went Wrong It Became Usual to Attribute It to Snowball

Gary Markstein, 11/22/11:

Sure, most people would think that rampaging debt that threatens the government and economy of an entire country -- of the kind currently embroiling Greece, and which the US is vastly far away from, by the way -- would be a bad thing, but Markstein likes to see the bright side of default, ruin, and potential hyperinflation: at least some people he doesn't like would be hit by a snowball.

Do-Nothing Somebody-Or-Other

Bob Gorrell, 11/23/11:

For some odd reason, I find it hard to believe that right-wingers like Gorrell actually want Obama to aggressively use recess appointments and executive orders -- in the vein of his predecessor -- to advance his agenda as strongly as possible.

But Gorrell does seem to be demanding that here, so perhaps I'm wrong.

Is That Supposed to Be a Haircut?

Adam Zyglis, 11/23/11:

Yes, the debt crisis in the US is so bad that the US government is completely unable to restructure its debts or pay interest! We're all gonna die from runaway debt!

Oh, wait, that's not true at all: actually, the US Treasury gets such favorable terms right now that they actually make money by borrowing.

Freedom's Just Another Word For Nothing Left To Lose

Michael Ramirez, 11/24/11:

Our most hallowed freedom as Americans -- the one without which we are nothing, the central freedom from which all others emanate -- is the right to get sick and die.

An American who has health care is no American at all! Why, even saying the word "doctor" is the unerring mark of the socialist!

Giving Thanks

R.J. Matson, 11/22/11:

Um....who, exactly, is talking in this cartoon? One of the masses of people who just froze to death?

When In Doubt, Attack the People You Always Do

Chuck Asay, 11/22/11:

That's right -- Asay just flat-out accused a cabinet-level official and Planned Parenthood (the Republicans' favorite whipping boy to begin with) of raping children.

What'cha gonna do about it?

Jolly Old Elf?

Drew Sheneman, 11/21/11:

Santa's getting pretty testy these days -- but is this a "Christmas decorations go up too damn soon" cartoon or a "the government is broken" cartoon?

It Was Necessary to Destroy The Turkey In Order to Save It

Clay Jones, 11/18/11:

Occupy Wall Street's secret aim is to throw the entire country out of work -- or perhaps to violently slaughter every job-holder -- in pursuit of a muddled Thanksgiving metaphor.

Occupy Wall Street: The Horror Movie!

Martin Kozlowski, 11/17/11:

The Occupy movement is made up of some kind of viscous oily substance -- or perhaps The Blob? -- and will just slither back together when violently separated.

A Point Resolutely Ignored

Brian Fairrington, 11/19/11:

If you complain that corporations are omnipresent and entirely dominant in American life, you are required to also refute yourself by avoiding them at all times.

Or else you're just a dirty hippie, of course.

I Didn't Even Mention the Drive-By Insinutation of Labor Disputes

Mike Lester, 11/19/11:

Sure, the potential GOP candidates seem unable to complete simple sentences without forgetting their own names and addresses -- but, Lester insists, they know what game they're playing, which Obama does not.

And that begs the very important question: what game, precisely, is that? And will the rest of us be happy to see them win that game?

There's No OTHER Reason Anyone Would Want to Work, Is There?

Jesse Springer, 11/18/11:

Women working outside of the home is an abomination, and those little hussies should run on home to make meatloaf for their biblical-master husbands and home-school their little darlins if they know what's good for them!

Cue the Jaunty Music

Terry Mosher, 11/18/11:

Mosher is firmly against something-or-other that Obama did recently, and hopes we already know what that is.

Black Gold! Texas Tea!

Michael Ramirez, 11/18/11:

Remember: the key to Energy Independence is to squeeze a few more years out of our dwindling fossil fuels, in hopes of pushing the local percentage up a few points, and not to actually pursue any energey sources that aren't completely commoditized and mostly controlled by Middle Eastern despots.

Where's Superboy?

Matt Wuerker, 11/17/11:

Unless the joke here is "all Republican wives are indistinguishable blondes," I got nothing.

High Noon-ish

Chuck Asay, 10/17/11:

Is Asay hinting here that the USA is planning to conquer China?

Or is he just forgetting that we've had military bases in the far east since 1898 and the end of the Spanish-American War?

Or, perhaps, is this just a knee-jerk "No way!" cartoon to a random Obama talking point?

Occupy Starbucks!

Mike Lester, 11/17/11:

Usually, right-wingers like rugged, self-sufficient outdoorsmen!

This is all part of a fiendish plot on the part of deep-cover Democratic operatives to get Republicans to renounce all they hold dear: first the Occupy Wall Street crowd will move out of cities into rural areas (to make it easier to camp), and then will begin to hunt for food, and then, by slow steps, they'll embrace NASCAR, country music, and casual racism. Right-wing commentators will be forced to take elitist big-city positions just to keep up their scorn for OWS, and, imperceptibly, Republicans will come to demand government-run health care, a living wage, and real bagels with lox.

Cain Is Unable

Steve Benson, 11/17/11:

When Herman Cain suddenly stops speaking during an interview -- as he is wont to do -- it's because he's suddenly been whacked in the back of the head by a giant cartoon bag of ice.

If he lasts long enough, we'll see what happens when the cartoon anvil hits him!

I Want a Hat That Says "Me"

Chip Bok, 11/15/11:

I have no idea what it all means, so let's all just sit and wonder at this impressively labeled but totally incomprehensible cartoon.

(Oh, sure, it's clear that Bok dislikes Obama -- and uses the typical cartoonists' shorthand for a do-nothing president, showing him golfing -- but what does the Keystone pipeline have to do with Boeing?)

The Mayor of "Evicted From Zuccotti"

Jeff Stahler, 11/16/11:

Using technology as part of a political movement is something only an effete, elitist, trust-fund kid couch-surfing in his parents' basement would do, and so consequently we can all just sniff down our noses at the Occupy folks.

The Doctor Will See You Now

Gary Varvel, 11/16/11:

Health care is actually horribly destructive -- no one in their right mind would ever want to consult a doctor, or go to a hospital with an illness, or take any sort of medicine.

So the Supreme Court is going to save us all from ever having to have any of that nasty health care again!

He's Got His Magic Shoes On

J.D. Crowe, 11/16/11:

The Republicans dream candidate: dumb, easily led, and entirely fictional.

(Unless they mean Nathan Bedford Forrest, who might actually be right-wing enough to satisfy the Tea Party.)

Eye of Newt

Dana Summers, 11/15/11:

Just by the law of averages, someone has to believe that Newt Gingrich has a chance to become President. (Besides the Newt himself, of course.)

And now we know that man's name.

Maybe Actually Working WOULD Have Made Them Free!

Michael Kountouris, 10/17/11:

Yes, asking a country to actually pay the debts it lawfully ran up (and was spent on its citizens, even!) is exactly like slaughtering all of them in death camps.


(That's the publication date Cagle Post has, but it could have appeared any time in the last six months; Greek's debt crisis is nothing if not persistent.)

Apparently, Fishing Requires Expensive Foreign Wars

Jeff Parker, 11/10/11:

...but you'd better find one at least 70 years old, since everyone after that fought to keep half of Korea non-Commie, or to fail to keep half of Vietnam non-Commie, or just invade various mountainous and/or dust-swept lands that weren't in any position to make the USA non-free in the first place.

Bet Ya He's Done One Blaming Carter, Too

Mike Thompson, 11/9/11:

Some people blame the current economy on Obama, some on Bush. Some think that it's a global problem that can't be pinned on any single person.

Not Thompson: he's sure it's all the fault of the guy who left office 3,945 days earlier.

Me, I'm blaming it all on Herbert Hoover!

Cue the Beach Boys Song

Michael Ramirez, 11/8/11:

The problem with American culture -- obviously! -- is that we don't shower enough wealth and fame on people who already have giant piles of cash.

Gone Fishin'

Editorial Explanations is on vacation this week, so you'll all have to deal with the flood of bizarre, tendentious, unfathomable, and insane cartoons without me for a couple of days.

The regular mocking of this nation's fine and hard-working cartoonists will return sometime in the middle of next week.

Our Own Sun King?

Jeff Danziger, 11/5/11:

President Obama is actually the reincarnation of the god Apollo, riding his sun-chariot across the sky each day to bring light and heat to our world.

Meanwhile, the GOP candidates seem to be mixing mythologies and attempting to start Ragnarok.

First World Problems

Gary Varvel, 11/4/11:

If anyone, anywhere in the world, is in a situation worse than yours in any way, you cannot complain about anything, ever.

It's just a rule: don't question it.

Note the Lack of Any Humor or Commentary

Bob Gorrell, 11/4/11:

Look, if you don't think that Occupy Wall Street is made up of dirty hippies by now, there's nothing Gorrell can do to change your pea-brained mind.

I mean, look, the Democrats like them! How could anything be worse than that!

He Doesn't Have To Shoot You Now!

Dana Summers, 11/4/11:

The turkey is the most masochistic of all American game animals, prone to anguish whenever something such as shopping stops humans from even a moment from slaughtering and eating them.

Slaving Over a Hot Drafting Board Is REALLY Hard!

Chuck Asay, 11/3/11:

How much clearer can Asay say it?

"Shut the hell up and start digging a ditch, you dirty, lazy hippies!"

Oliver Twist Has Asked for MORE!

Jeff Parker, 11/1/11:

Those brown people just aren't dying fast enough! Don't they known it's only the ecological thing to do?

(Also see pretty much every other "Oh, Gosh, there are now 7 Billion of us" cartoons, none of which address who is actually using most of those resources.)

Fright Night

Henry Payne, 11/1/11:

There is nothing that scares white matrons so much as seeing a black man on their doorstep.

Trademarked Outrage

Nate Beeler, 11/1/11:

Previous News Item: Some guy on Long Island, utterly unconnected with any protesters, attempts to trademark "Occupy Wall St."

You might think that a guy who works in a newsroom could, y'know, look that up.

The Tree of Liberty Needs To Be Watered From Time to Time With the Blood of Investment Bankers

Randy Bish, 10/31/11:

Response A: If bankers are so willing to work, how come they never do?

Response B: Nice to see that we've now decided that the 9%+ unemployment in this country is entirely due to slackers.

A Maze Of Twisty Little Passageways

Walt Handelsman, 10/31/11:

So, Handelsman's cartoon folks there are looking for a society with no unemployment, free health care, no housing market, no capital markets, free college, no politics, and no deficit?

Congratulations -- you've just described Communist China.