About the Cartoonist | Reprint Policy

We're going to take a cartoon break today, because I have not just one but actually two cartoons waiting in the wings from C.W. Cunningham. I'm going to post them separately here, because the second one needs its own title. The first shows a different perspective of an earlier cartoon.

Enjoy!

-- Chris Weigant

About the Cartoonist | Reprint Policy

The "hostile takeover" of the Republican Party by the Tea Partiers continues apace. Except, of course, where it doesn't. Like much else about the entire Tea Party movement, it's hard to pin down exactly what is going on and what it all means. Which, of course, doesn't stop us pundits from trying! Ahem. But, other than making life interesting for the political chattering classes, the real question is now (as it has always been): will the Tea Partiers wind up being a net positive or a net negative for the Republican Party, especially when it comes to Senate races?

The answer, as with all things Tea Party, is (once again): "it's hard to be sure." We won't really know until after the midterm elections, and at that point so much "spin" will be on the airwaves one might (if one grew up in Kansas, for the sake of argument) be excused the immediate impulse to run for the tornado shelter in the backyard. In other words, even after the elections, the answer is going to depend on who is doing the answering.

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Realistically, that headline should read "Disappointment Poll Results," so I'll just start off by apologizing. Ahem.

Yesterday we ran a poll here on why, exactly, Obama has disappointed so many Lefties (and other people who voted for him). Today we present the results of this poll, which (so far) has garnered exactly 100 entries, a statistically nice round number.

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While the major fallout from Robert Gibbs' recent slap in the face to "the professional left" has died down a bit, a second round of examination seems to have begun -- one much more introspective and much less knee-jerk than the first round. But the problem seems to be that the people writing about it are mostly of the inside-the-Beltway punditry, meaning it lacks a certain breadth, I think.

This isn't to say such articles aren't valuable, and worth debate. Greg Sargent, who writes the political blog The Plum Line over at WashingtonPost.com, titled today's article: "Why is left so disappointed in Obama?" In it, Sargent discusses an article in Politico which attempts to answer this question, and comes up with his own take on things. Which immediately led me to thinking: "Well, why not ask a few Lefties what they think?"

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The media, quite obviously, has lost any capacity it once may have had for self-examination, to say nothing of its sense of irony. Every so often, this is proven beyond doubt by a single story. This, sadly, is one of those times.

Here's a quick quiz, to demonstrate what I'm talking about. Did you hear that "almost one-fifth" (actually eighteen percent) of Americans responded to a recent poll by saying that President Barack Obama is actually a Muslim? Most of us heard that news in the past twenty-four hours or so. This is because it falls into the category of "media catnip," which is properly defined as "a story which, in true feline form, causes the media to get really, really silly -- to the point of brainlessness."

OK, here's the quiz part. What percent of the people who think Obama is a Muslim learned this untruth from the following sources:

The media?

The internet?

If you don't know the answer to that, take a guess. Go ahead.

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There's a mini-tizzy in the media world today after a new poll was released which stated that eighteen percent of Americans think President Obama is a Muslim. "Golly gee! How could they think that?" is the overwhelming tone of most of this media tizziness. Only one article I've seen (so far), though, correctly points the finger where it belongs: at the media themselves.

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With less than three months to go, I thought it'd be a good time to take a quick look at how the midterm elections are shaping up in the Senate. For now, we'll ignore the House races (because, truth be told, there are just too many of them to keep track of in such a microscopic fashion). While there are still a few remaining primary races to lock in who will be the nominee, in most states the slate is set for the Senate at this point. Which means we can finally take a close look at the situation.

I should say, up front, that I think Democrats are going to lose a few seats in the Senate, but that they will retain control of the chamber after the votes are counted. But while the House remains volatile in this respect, the landscape for the Senate has noticeably improved for the Democrats. So there's a little good news and a little bad news for everyone.

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Since we've had quite a number of very contentious columns for the past few weeks, I thought we could all use a break, so that I may present a totally and utterly self-serving column.

That's right -- this column is all about this column today. No news, no opinions, nothing to see here but navel-gazing. This is fair warning -- anyone expecting anything else today, don't even bother reading this, and tune in tomorrow when we jump right back into the fray as usual.

Today, instead, I'd like to talk about the Friday Talking Points awards. Again, if you do not instantly recognize this subject matter, I really would advise skipping today's column.

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President Barack Obama, in a White House Ramadan address last Friday, expressed his thoughts on the "Ground Zero mosque" debate, and in doing so not only got it exactly right, but also managed to change the debate in a considerable way which few have noticed yet. Because in his comments Friday (and in his off-the-cuff comment the next day), the president refocused the debate from the notion of "should be allowed" to the question of "should." In doing so, Obama elevated the level of the debate for both him and the project's detractors.

The initial controversy over building an Islamic cultural center two and a half blocks away from "Ground Zero" was cast in the harsh light of "there oughta be a law" by most of the people who were outraged at the very idea. A mother who lost her child on 9/11 put it thusly: "I think it's despicable, and I think it's atrocious that anyone would even consider allowing them to build a mosque near the World Trade Center." Note that "allowing them to build." As I said, before the zoning board ruled, the argument was that the government should act, and prevent the mosque from being built. Unfortunately, this would have been impossibly unconstitutional -- the government cannot prevent a mosque from being built there, unless we're all ready to throw the First Amendment in the garbage can. This fact, though, didn't stop those opposed to the idea from demanding that the government "do something" about the plans to build the mosque (Bill of Rights be damned!).

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