Political Cartoon of the Week: Political Horse Race Dart Board

The political cartoon above is from http://www.politicalcartoons.com/cartoon/ad984424-80c9-49ed-977d-f13bae05e02a.html .

            This cartoon by Paresh Nath is a good wrap up of the current political situation in the republican nomination race and the presidential race. The first part of the picture that the eye is drawn to is the Elephant which, as labeled, represents the republicans. The artist used a yellow glow around the caricature to highlight the sweat falling off the elephant and the worried look on his face. Next the eye is drawn to the biggest object in the picture, the dartboard. The first thing that anyone that has ever shot or thrown anything at a target should see is that not a single dart has hit the bulls-eye. This is an indication that no one in the game has actually nailed the shot to seal away the game.

            Next the eye is drawn to each of the darts on the board and the respective names and spots each dart holds. The most obvious use of satire the artist shows then becomes apparent when spotting the crooked dart with Bachmann's name on it. This shows that the author really sees Bachmann as the worst dart in the bunch. Next, upon looking at the other darts you can see that the closer to the center the darts get the straighter and nicer looking they are. This precision of darts is no surprise given Perry forgot the last institution he was going to cut and Romney has basically been the constant holding a low lead throughout the game. The last dart spotted after briefly glancing at the close cluster of darts on the right side is the one dart out of that general group. This dart, representing Herman Cain, is the farthest, more so than Bachmann, from the center. However, it is the straightest dart of the bunch and is centered but low. This could symbolize that Herman Cain was on target, perhaps the candidate the artists saw as the straightest and truest, until some drama weighed him down to be the worst of the bunch. As a final throughout on target, you'll notice that Gingrich is not even on the target. This probably represents the fact that Gingrich hasn't finished throwing his dart as the other candidates have.

            Finally, you'll notice the poster displaying the rules of the game. The poster shows us various things. One, it confirms that this dart board is played for the nomination race. Two, it establishes two goals: hit the dart board and replace Obama. The elephant obviously isn't worried about hitting the board. So, he must be worried about replacing Obama. Because none of the candidates have hit the bulls-eye, none of them have gathered enough support from republican voters to really be a threat to Obama after the nomination.

            Obviously the cartoonist wanted us to see that he is worried because the Republicans don't seem to have a good chance of combating Obama yet. The cartoonist is using the nomination dart board to foretell the presidential vote. The artist is waiting for Gingrich to throw his dart or for one of the other candidates, probably Mitt Romney, to fudge the dart placement a little more towards the middle.