The Sun'll Come Out Tomorrow

Dick Locher, 1/11/13:

Everything is absolutely horrible and will be horrible from now on, so stupid optimists should just shut up with their stupid optimism!

A fact which may not be unrelated: Dick Locher was born in 1929.

Dick Locher Rides Again

Dick Locher, 9/8/12:

You see, TV is the boob tube, and thus the mother of that infant -- still in the breast-feeding stage.

And obviously TV is just the same as big government, because shut up already.

The Buck Stops Somewhere in This General Vicinity

Dick Locher, 8/15/12:

Obama both doesn't know whether the federal budget will be in balance and thinks that "balance" means that there will be some spare change left over.

He also appears to have been carved out of wood, but that's the least of his problems.

Logrolling in Our Time

Dick Locher, 6/13/12:

The GOP is trying to "rollback" every tax they can touch, as part of their sneaky "starve the beast" strategy to topple the entire federal government.

But the courageous Democrats are proudly standing (ah, sitting) firm to stop that.

Is His Doorstep in the Middle of a Ballroom?

Dick Locher, 6/8/12:

Illegal immigration is primarily a matter of poor foreigners leaving their babies on the US's doorstep, ringing the bell, and then running away.

Sadly, the US is hard of hearing, so those babies inevitably die -- and that's why the number of illegal immigrants to the US has dropped substantially in recent years.

(There's a potential expansion of this idea of the US's doorstep, involving flaming bags on unpleasant substances and unfriendly countries, but luckily Locher left that to the imagination.)

Wash Me

Dick Locher, 5/31/12:

The White House is like one of those beater cars that the neighbor kids love to make fun of, and Our President is the maid in charge of keeping it clean.

In this metaphor, the dirt on the window symbolizes partisan gridlock...oh, wait, maybe it's Obamacare? No, no -- it's definitely the weak recovery! Um, Solyndra, maybe?

Is the Housing Market a RINO?

Dick Locher, 4/9/12:

Absolutely! Who hasn't visualized the housing market as a comatose rhino, held aloft on the sturdy backs of a bevy of doughty True Americans? And what else would you use to revive that rhino than defibrulation paddles marked "campaign"?

I don't know how Locher can so easily put into cartoon form the way we all feel!

Just a Dirty Little Village in the Middle of Nowhere

Dick Locher, 3/27/12:

Yes, the GOP is a TV camera -- symbolizing the liberal control of media, I suppose -- and it's calling out Sheriff Obama to perform better in his "next term."

Did Locher just admit that whoever wins the current Republican demolition derby doesn't have a chance? Or is this just another confused, and confusing, Locher cartoon?

He's Got Crazy Flipper Fingers

Dick Locher, 3/22/12:

Now, I could be wrong here, but...isn't all of the criticism of Obama not fulfilling his promises -- and thus "flip-flopping" -- from his left?

I have a hard time seeing Locher complaining about Guantanamo not being closed and the gleeful declaration that we can assassinate target American citizens anywhere in the world.

All Cowboys Ain't Dumb

Dick Locher, 3/16/12:

So Super PAC Money is bucking Elections off of itself? And then Elections will fall, face-first, onto the Hard Concrete Floor of the Electorate?

Can anyone make any sense of this metaphor?

You're It!

Dick Locher, 3/13/12:

Obama's presidential campaign -- note the "2012" on his shirt -- is trying to hand off the entire economy to a reluctant, spastic runner who represents the Nixon-era "silent majority."

Huh?!

And, seriously, has anyone talked about the Silent Majority seriously since Spiro Agnew shuffled off this mortal coil?

The Horror, The Horror

Dick Locher, 3/8/12:

So..."city taxes" used to be in the suburbs, and are now heading upriver away from them?

Does that make any sense at all?

Doing the Dishes

Dick Locher, 1/31/12:

Locher takes the bold step of getting his Super Bowl cartoon in nearly a week ahead of the big game, so as to give him more time to rest afterward.

Also bold: having no joke, no political content, and two characters furiously agreeing.

Use IRS Washers! Gets Government Money 72% Cleaner Than Other Brands!

Dick Locher, 1/9/12:

Now, I'm not going to pick on the bizarre anatomy of Obama there -- with one stumpy arm and one super-bendy arm.

I'm not going to nit-pick the huge empty spaces in those speech balloons.

I won't complain that turning the IRS into a front-loading washer is a weird metaphor, even for Locher.

And I'm not even going to ask how Obama would get that rich guy into the washing machine.

I will, however, note that this cartoon doesn't have a punchline, just two lines of dialogue barely connected by that shared washing-IRS metaphor, and wonder out loud what on earth a "normal" setting for an IRS washing machine could possibly be.

Where's His Other Leg?

Dick Locher, 1/3/12:

The US's debt is, as we all know, a single cowboy boot, presumably clamped to the country's ankle, so we can't simply kick it off.

But this manly figure -- equal parts Obama, Reagan, and John Wayne -- is going to attempt to shoot it off the foot of the body politic, using a shockingly unlabeled gun (perhaps it should be "Socialism"? or "Massive Taxes"?) with a redundantly labeled silencer, which exists for purposes only clear to the minds of God and Dick Locher.

Missing, Presumed Mallbound

Dick Locher, 12/22/11:

So many questions, so little time:

1) Is that guy supposed to be Locher himself? If not, who is he?

2) Is this cartoon supposed to be a comment on renewed consumer economic activity? Or is just another old sexist "those girls, you know they love to shop!" wheeze?

3) Is there any reason why we should care that this guy calls them "stealth shoppers"?

4) Come to think of it, why on earth would he call them stealth shoppers?

In MY Day, We Used Smoke Signals And LIKED It!

Dick Locher, 12/14/11:

I know, I know. But if cellphones had been invented in the 1950s, there totally would have been a company named Text Messaging Corp., and their boardroom would have looked exactly like this.

(Though that woman would have been a secretary, of course.)

Monkeybone, Monkeyphone

Dick Locher, 12/13/11:

Never would've thought of Locher as an Android man, did you?

Also, all you lousy kids need to pull up your pants, stop listening to that damn rap music, and get a job shining shoes for a nickel.

Gerrymandering Run Wild

Dick Locher, 12/2/11:

Every so often, I just post a Dick Locher cartoon -- not to explain it, because no merely mortal man can do that, but to stand back and bask in the glow of its bizarre lunacy.

Today is one of those days.

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.