In this Colbert Report, John Colbert makes evident the loophole in recent laws concerning campaign funding.  After the supreme court case in 2010, when it was considered unconstitutional to limit the amount of money an individual can give to an organization, since spending money is the equivalent to the freedom of speech.  Colbert realizes that he wants to be involved in the campaigning process and creates his own super PAC.  Super PACs cannot be associated directly with a candidate running for office, and the law states that they cannot collaborate at any times.  The Super PAC is supposedly oblivious to what the candidate wants, but Colbert exposes this fact in his show.  He become the owner of a PAC and then gives the PAC to John Stewart to take care of and control.  This exploits just how Gingrich is able to get so much funding without breaking the law even his own fundraising efforts are not nearly as effective as the PAC the supports him that apparently has no clue of what he intends to do along the campaign trail.  The irony is that it is so easy for Colbert to start this political action committee and is very easy to avoid the law with very simple steps.  The show portrays the new campaign finance laws as very ineffective and even he can create a Super PAC.  This comedy has a republican slant since it gives insight in how the nominees managed to raise so much money.  The man running the super PAC could be their best friend and they could of planned out what they wanted to do, only if they do not talk during the Republican primary process.



     The Daily Show with John Stewart bases the topics off of recent events that have occurred in the political world.  In this show, the main concentration is Gingrich and the large amount of ignorance he carries on his back in debates and in press conferences.  John Steward talks to a black reporter after Gingrich's racial slur regarding food stamps.  He said loud and clear that black people are the ones in need of food stamps, white the facts show that most Americans on welfare and in need of food stamps are predominantly white individuals.  Even when Gingrich is asked to recall his previous statement he adds in that he wants to be the money check president and not a food stamp president.  Stewart then replays all the videos of Gingrich seeming to be a racist by also attacking Palestinians, claiming that they are an invented people, and also more attacks on the black community. The irony is that Gingrich is unaware of what he has been saying in most of his speeches.  What comes out is not right and he shows no ways of correcting his impediments.  He is so naive of what he is saying that he probably does not listen to what he says, or if he does, he is blatantly unaware of how he is offending others.  This is more of a liberal slant because the other Republican candidates during the debates or even in their press conferences do not attack Gingrich mainly on his speeches, but on what he did in the past.



     In this Colbert report the main focus is all the Republican candidates seeking the nomination especially Mitt Romney.  Colbert has a clock ticking down the time until Romney seals the deal for the nomination since he is largely ahead in national pulls at this stage in the race.  This however is very ironic since there is still a week away from the Iowa caucus.  At this point, Herman Cain is still in the race, with a field of seven including Rick Perry.  On the show they imitate the nominees in a debate style, making fun of the candidates that appear to be outrageous according to Colbert.  The impersonator of Herman Cain talks about his 9 9 9 deal and reminisces of a time when he was in the restaurant business, and also about his relationship with his wife since he was being charged in a scandal during the debates.  Perry is attacked for having trouble finishing up his sentences and lacking in his intelligence in the political spectrum.  He stutters and is unsure of what he wants the government to cut back on.  Ron Paul is even brought up for being radical and his huge difference in foreign policy for not wanting the military to be abroad in a different country.  This comedy is of a liberal slant since it makes all the candidates portrayed have weaknesses that are now evident to the public.  It makes the nominees seem less prepared to face Obama and not intelligent enough to even voice their opinions clearly.

     In the cartoon, Rick Santorum is being interviewed by a television network about the Republican nomination process and asked about his chances of becoming the nominee.  The bottom of the screen is says Election 2012 and right next to this caption it depicts Santorum's name next to the (R) for Republican.  He is being asked about his fellow competitor, Mitt Romney's advantage of having out raised his campaign by a long shot, thus ensuring an easier and more successful path to victory.  He states that "Romney is only trouncing me because he has outspent me 3 to 1."  This just shows how money is probably the biggest factor in this process and why Gingrich, who has barely any support from the general public compared to Santorum and Romney, has stayed in the race.  Money has the ability to showcase ads, get more publicity, gain the support of those that are undecided, and most especially, get your viewpoints voiced and widely heard.  Romney has this edge and with all these advantages it just shows that Santorum was at a disadvantage from the start.  This just shows that Americans are do not care about the views and policy, but they jump on the bandwagon to join their friends.  Santorum in a thought bubble reminds himself that "It will be different when President Obama outspends me 50 to 1."  The irony is that Santorum ignores the fact that he cannot compete for the presidency even if he wins the nomination.  Electability is ignored which is probably the most important issue for the party as a whole to consider if they want to regain power in the country.  This is from a liberal slant because it shows the improbability of Santorum trying to win at this point even with his confidence and high hopes.



   In this cartoon Mitt Romney is depicted as the Easter Bunny and Rick Santorum is depicted as a little kid searching for easter eggs.  Romney is smiling and is a very happy bunny.  His basket is filled to the brim with large colorful eggs to the point of overflow.  Each egg has the initials of all the states he won leading up to Easter Sunday.  Mitt is able to relax with his family and enjoy the holidays as he seems ready to share his joy with others.  Rick, on the other hand, has a glum look in his eyes.  He is staring at Mitt, glaring at all those giant eggs.  Santorum merely has a small basket with about five eggs in total which are tiny relative to his competitor.  He is on the ground, defeated with not enough eggs (states) to satisfy his great yearning to have the majority.  This relates directly with the nomination process.  Santorum has had stretches of good fortune, winning three in a row at one point, but Santorum has lost in the long run.  The last and probably the most vital state that he had to win was Wisconsin, but Romney is gladly hopping away and ready to celebrate the inevitability of the winning the Republican Nomination.  Romney is set to take on Obama after having a huge lead in delegates.  The slant is indifferent.  The cartoonist is ready for the battle for the presidency and move on with the race after a long primary process.  Mitt is ready after defending what he stands for, for the most part.

     In the cartoon there is a man holding and etch a sketch in his hands  His shirt says voters on the back.  The border of the toy has the phrase "Mitt Romeny's Core Principles."  In a speech bubble the man says "the knobs on the etch a sketch don't do anything."  This cartoon is referring to something Romney said recently in a campaign speech that a politician has right to shake up their profile and start a new, similar to how a etch a sketch erases a message.  This means that politicians make mistakes and that it is okay if they change their views to reflect what is prevalent in the country or if a significant and resonable event causes a politician to have an epiphany or atleast come up with a better solution to the situation at hand.  The real irony is that Romney has been considered a flip flopper.  Throughout the invisible primary and even up to the present, he has changed his mind on his pro-choice platform, on his immigration platform, and most especially on his viewpoint of healthcare.  The purpose of all this change is to move to the more conservative end of the spectrum and appeal to the ture conservatives of the Republican Party in the primary season.  The irony upon ironies is that the voter says that these knobs are not creating change in Romeny's ideological views.  This shows the naivity and uneducation of voters today.  They are not involved in politicis enough to know the backgrounds of the candidates or know exactly what they stand for.  The majority of voters do not vote prospectively or intelligently but on whims or due to bandwagon appeal.  This is definitely from a liberal standpoint or from Gingrich or Santorum trying to show the holes and gaps in the Romney campaing and Romneys ideas for improving the country in general.

     The title of the cartoon says "The Final Four."  Paul, Gingrich, Santorum, and Romney are all on a basketball court.  In college basketball, the top 64 teams in the country play in a tournament to compete for the national title and become the best team of the year.  The final four is when there are only four teams left, the semifinals, probably the most well known stage of the tournament according to the catchy phrase.  In the Republican horse race there are also four candidates left, however they are not evenly matched as depicted by the cartoon.  Ron Paul is playing croquet on the basketball court, clueless of what is taking place.  He is focused only on what he assumed they were gathered there for.  Gingrich is also confused, thinking that he showed up for a debate.  He is angry at the humiliation he is experiencing.  He is more alert, and standing up instead of slouching like Paul.  Gingrich has a determined look on his face to compete.  Santorum is the most prepared besides Romney.  Santorum is actually wearing recreational attire, and has a basketball to go along with his outfit.  Although he is still confused, beleiving that the basketball game was only half court.  On the contrary, Romney is wearing a complete uniform and jersey.  He is dunking a ball on stilts which is obviously against the rules.  This directly relates with the primary race.  Their spot in the race is exactly where they stand on the courts.  Paul is not worried about winning the nomination, but Gingrich lacks organization and elitist support, Santorum does not watch what he says, and Romney is at the top because he raises the most money and the best organization.  Romney is on stilts because Romney is not conservative enough, he is merely the defaylt candidate even if he does not follow the party platform, or the rule of basketball in this case.  This is from a independent ideological standpoint because this is an objective analysis of where the candidates stand currently in the polls and their amounts of delegates.

   In the cartoon there is a man flying off a mechanical bull.  The man's suit jacket has written the word "elections", while painted onto the machine it reads "super PAC money".  The man or politicians facial expression is worried.  He is looking at the ground searching for where he might land, while the mechanical bull is tilted, paused at the same spot the politicial was flung off into the air.  This symbolizes the dependency on super PACs.  All the candidates today have their own PACs, but the candidates are not to associate themselves with these fundraising organizations or even tell them what to do while they function.  The main super PAC that supports Romney is called Restore Our Future which has raised around 100 million dollars so far.  These PACs help set up ads on television and on the radio.  This cartoon is saying that if there were no super PACs or if the fundraising is not receiving enough donations, then the candidate is pretty much out of the race.  Money is the most important thing besides support when reaching for the nomination.  The PACs are churning out the most money they can like a machine and when the machine malfunctions then the candidate cannot get their message out to the public or retaliate to negative ads from other candidates.  This has does not have much of ideological tilt because it is fact.  Gingrich is doing so poorly because his donors are not contributing enough so it is difficult relating to the public or being featured on the media.      

Link to this page:
http://www.politicalcartoons.com/cartoon/e0b32c90-71e9-4530-9f65-d87d5caec638.html

     This cartoon is in general a critisism of Newt Gingrich.  The image shows Newt with a double chin, chubby cheeks, but small eyes, nose and mouth to go along with his large face.  He has crows feet on the edges of his eyes and in addition to the grey hair he appears to be old.  On the wall behind him there is graffiti with word "get out", "take a hike", "go", "enough", and "quit".  Gingrich's response to all of these suggestions is "What writing on what wall".  He does not want to except the fact that he is behind in the polls, almost at the level of Ron Paul.  He is only still in the race because his super PAC, Winning Our Future, is pumping in millions of dollars to run campaign ads and get out his true conservative views.  The slant of this cartoon is definitely conservative.  Some conservatives want the race play out and if it is Romeny and Santorum, with Gingrich out of the race, then it will be more likely for Romney to be battled and struggling to reach 1144 in delegates.  Gingrich is not as conservative as Santorum but he has taken away Evangelical votes from Rick and also far right wing voters.  Gingrich however is stubborn and keeps on claiming that he will stay in the race until Tampa, where the GOP convention will be held.  Gingrich is a beleiver put it is truly impossible for him to win the nomination at this point with so little delegates.

     The caption on this cartoon states, "A yankee campaigning in the South must remember three things; kiss babies, eat grits, and don't get the two mixed up.  Romney has been doing very poorly in southern states so far in the primary elections.  So far Gingrich has clinched South Carolina and Georgia, while Santorum has snagged, Tennesse and Oklahoma.  Romney has failed, but was able to win Florida which consists of a diverse population.  If Romney wants to seal the nomination and acheive the alottled amount of delegates, 1144 he must come up with a startegy to win those, or else his rivals will stick around too long, causing him some tough challenges up ahead.  This cartoon is obviously of the liberal ideology because it is mocking Romneys performance.  He is struggling to connect with the so called "true conservatives" and the Evangelical Christians.  Democrats want the nominating process ot play out so more negatives about the candidates appears in the media and from their rivals.  The cartoon depicts Romney eating a baby with its foot still hanging out of his mouth.  There is a lady in the back that says, "Well kiss my grits" which is relates to Romneys confusion in his strategy.  The irony is that Romney is seen as an imbicile, not able to connect to Americans.  Romney is probably the most intelligent of the pack, attending Harvard Law School as a part of his education life.  Losing a few states is not a precursor to his idiocy in the South, but just not enough time invested in the South.  His campaign is the most organized and it okay if the race plays out since he has a large lead.

 

     The caption of the cartoon says, "Kiss the Newt and I will turn into a conservative prince."  Newt Gingrich is a frog or kind of lizard sitting on top of a stone, which could be a grave stone.  Gingrich has disappeared from the leading position in National polls after North Carolina in the second primary however he has not had any other success besides his home state Georgia.  There seems to be a little diconnection between Newt and conservative voters.  What really hurt him was his last few performances in the debate.  When he was attacked dramatically by Ron Paul and Santorum, he did not have a comback and support his decisions that he made in the past.  He did not retaliate and acted as if he ignored the insult completely.  Newt had campaigned as the conservative alternative to Mitt Romney, however it appears that Santorum took his place.  If Gingrich does campaign strongly and takle every state with the same amount of honor and time he will definitely have shot bakc in the race.  The sole problem is that he needs to raise a lot of money which he is lacking from his supporters.  He needs to up his anty and campaign hard to gain more delegates.  The ideology is liberal.  It puts Gingrich in a bad light.  He is a wierd looking creature in this case.  The point of the tomb stone symbolizes that his character has died.  He is no longer a contender unless something miraculous occurs.  In real life he needs a helpful billionare donor, and in the cartoon he needs a kiss even with his atrocious appearance.  Gingrich is between a rock and a hard place and by the time he wiggles out of it Romney will have the nomination, unless Gingrich endorses his fellow competitior Rick Santorum.

On the verge of super tuesday

    The cartoon caption shown in the background says "Super Tues."  This sign has an arrow pointing to a voting booth.  There is a man at the back of the voting of the voter center.  A sign in book, to ensure identification as a US citizen and registered voter sits on the desk.  There is a speech bubble coming from the volunteer watching, but there are no words or even any letters or symbols in the bubble.  It is blank.  The irony of this is that the voter is focused just on placing a vote, a civil liberty, but being stubborn and ignorant of that man is the essence of problem caused by Republicans, they cannot decide who to elect.  The voter in this case is an elephant, the mascot of the Republican Party.  This pertains to todays political field because Super Tuesday, also known as the southern primary, is next tuesday.  History has proved that Super Tuesday has been a turning point in both the Democratic and Republican nomination campaigns.  There are hundreds of delegates up for grabs and this can either keep a candidates momentum up, and push that candidate to the party convention, or this date can pull conservative voters to an alternative, that may have been struggling to raise enough money to keep in the running for president.  This cartoon is of a liberal slant.  The elephant is all beat up as it approaches the voting booth.  He has a cast on right foot and one on his left arm.  His head even has a small bandage.  This shows that because of all the Republican debates, commercials, and speeches, the Republican candidates have been tarnishing each other, while destroying what the Republican party stands for.  What is a true conservative?  This competition can be considered horrible.  Obama does not have to criticize any of the candidates since the Republicans are dishing out insults and using negative ads to gain support.  With all these attacks and the economy rising, Obama is in an ideal position to defeat any rising Republican nominee, even if one is chosen the day after Super Tuesday.



     The caption, picture frame hanging on the wall, says "Michigan, Home Sweet Home."  The Michigan primary has just passed and Mitt Romney has emerged as the winner.  The media had predicted the week before this primary that Santorum had a considerable lead.  The irony is that Romney was born and raised in the state, his father was the Governor, has the home field advantage and would have been devastating to his demeanor as a candidate to loose the state he is very familiar with.  If Romney had lost Michigan, his momentum would have dropped dramatically and would be second guessed since his people would not even vote for him as a reliable and superior candidate.  The cartoon depicts Romney sitting on the couch, probably in the house he grew up in.  He is wiping the sweat from his brow with a towel in relief of what the results showed in the primary.  A thought cloud depicts the words, "Phew, that was close."  He only beat Santorum by a mere three percentage points, however both Romney and Santorum received the same amount of delegates, thus splitting the congressional districts.  Romney said in a conference later on that a "win is a win."  The ideology represented is neither liberal nor conservative.  This is a factual representation of what Romney actually felt and the word choice he used in his victory speech in Detroit.  This is definitely a plus for the Romney campaign, and he just dodged a bullet which could have taken him out of the number 1 position in the primary season.

GOP struggle

     In this cartoon, all of the five characters are Republicans.  All are stacked on each other, similar to a todem pole.  Newt Gingrich is on the top, followed by Donald Trump, Michelled Bachman, Mitt Romney and a fifth character whos name is difficult to transcribe.  Their goal as a team is to reach the microphone behind the podium that is named, "2012 Presidential Material".  Once they can speak into the microphone, if they ever elevate to that plateu, then they can give their party platform or atleast the objectives of the Republican Party.  However this group is most likely a variance from the true conservative values of the GOP.  The current problem is that their stack falls short, they do not have the length to acheive their goal at the final moment, but Gingrich shows hope.  He is the only one that is optimistic.  Gingrich adds that there is a posibility as long as their tower remains straigth.  The ideological perspective is more of a liberal slant.  A conservative voter would be confident that a republican candidate will eventually stick out from the mix, but this cartoon depicts candidates and their counterparts in a situation that is unsturdy.  It is a huge obstacle to rise to this height, and a dilemma of choosing a consistent candidate to represent the GOP.  One irony from the cartoon is that the heaviest man is on the top.  Newt Gingrich had his name on the spotlight, but for this exercise his mass belongs on the bottom of the structure.  Gingrich must be switched out of order, but no matter who the person on the top of the pack, it is not likely that they will reach the microphone to share their insights on becoming president.  If they cannot get the presidential material, their shot at becoming the next president is slim.

 
The title, "A Rising Tide Sinks All GOP Boats," encompasses the whole picture of the cartoon.  The three republican nominee hopefuls all have their own personall rowboat and are under water falling to the bottom.  Romney and Santorum are not blown out of proportion, but Gingrich is an overweight man is a seemingly smaller vessel.  Fish are staring at these strange creatures.  On the surface of the wavy water the word "economy" is written.  The message overall is that the GOP candidates are loosing ground.  If the economy keeps on improving, then president Obama looks more accomplished and succesful in his original goal of boosting the economy and bringing it out of the recession.  Furthermore, the Republicans cannot attack Obama as much in the general election debates when the time comes.  The ideological slant is definitely liberal because most Republicans would say that Obama has led a failed presidency, and that it is his fault that the economy is so low, and any positive effect is merely recovering what the incumbent caused.  One source of irony is the facial expression of the fish.  They can be seen as conservative citizens who are dissapointed in them.  They are giving the men blank stares and show no disbelief in their current situation.  This cartoon shows that the GOP is not happy with any of these candidates and it is apparent if a clear front runner does not arise then there is little hope of defeating Obama.