GOP Debate

Obama’s Fault

I covered this topic last August. Here, take a look at the cartoon. Last August. At what point do trump supporters stop beating up protesters, specifically minorities, at his rallies?

What’s even worse, the latest incident in Fayetteville, North Carolina is even more horrible because the man assaulted was the one taken down by police. The man who assaulted him, who moved over several feet to sucker punch the kid, in front of the police, wasn’t bothered. He has since been charged.

Trump’s campaign says they’re not responsible. Despite Trump stating how he’d like to punch protesters and that he’d pay legal defenses for anyone who does.

Trump’s spokespeople say it happens at other rallies. I’m sure there’s a lot of passion at all of the political rallies…except for Marco’s. I know there’s some pushing and shoving at Hillary’s events. Maybe some toes stepped on at Sanders’. A bible or two gets aggressively thumped at a Cruz hootinanny. But you don’t see Bernie Sanders telling his people to steal the protesters’ jackets in Burlington in January and then kick them outside to freeze.

And yet we keep hearing how this is Obama’s fault. That the president is so divisive and the GOP Congress couldn’t work with him and his tone and tenure created the atmosphere that allowed the likes of Donald Trump to destroy the Republican party and make it look like our nation is failing a massive IQ test. Of course the snapperheads who believe that also once thought Sarah Palin was presidential material. And that numb nuts they made their last nominee who recently said Trump would be a disaster for this country? Yeah, that guy. He practically threw a ticker-tape parade for the Trump’s endorsement in 2012.

But seriously? The Tea Party? The promise of a Congress to make the president a one-termer? Birtherism? Questioning his religion? Screaming “you lie” during the state of the union? None of that paved the road for this? Republicans have blamed Obama for a lot, but stating he is the one who destroyed their party is just insane.

They did that all on their own….unless it’s Obama’s fault they don’t like black presidents.

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An intelligent Debate?

I watched the Democratic Debate last night. The candidates didn’t create nicknames for each other. No one was called a “liar.” There was talk about the Flint water crisis, student debt, trade, bailouts, the auto industry. There wasn’t a penis reference. There wasn’t a booger. It was so boring.

The lowest jab might have been when Sanders referenced the Republican debate as proof that we need to do more for mental health.

In comparison nobody comes off looking presidential, or even as an adult, at the Republican debates. There’s no maturity or intellectualism, which of course are bad things in GOP Land. The Republicans actually lauded Michigan governor Rick Snyder a hero in the Flint water crisis. What?

Even though I could watch ten more Republican debates because they’re so entertaining, I think we’ve had enough for this cycle. If you don’t know where the candidates stand by this point then you’re an idiot. I’m not saying you should have your mind made up, as I’m not entirely decided either. But I know where the candidates stand.

I usually avoid drawing cartoons of people watching television. I’ve drawn way too many of those in years past. But sometimes it’s unavoidable because watching TV is what people do. And it’s hard to avoid it when the topic is the content your kids are watching.

Trump and his Teeny, Tiny….Hands

By now you’ve heard about the last GOP debate. Gee, what silliness occurred this time? Within the first few minutes Donald Trump made a reference to his penis. And what was that thing on Ted Cruz’s lip and where did it go? If you were going to pick one booger eater out of all these candidates you would probably pick Cruz. No pun intended.

I haven’t sent this cartoon to my clients. I’m not sure it’s up to their standards. Plus, there’s no black and white version which I always send to my newspapers along with the color files. I would think they would not want a penis reference cartoon but I’ve noticed a few of my colleagues have already gone there as well. Thank you, Republicans, for giving cartoonist wiener and booger joke material. We can’t get this stuff from Bernie.

This was drawn on my tablet last night while sitting in a restaurant and I’ve already shared it on Facebook. So for you guys who do not follow me on Facebook, or aren’t even on Facebook, this is for you. Tell all those people at GoComics to swing by and visit.

Oh yeah. Here’s a Christie caricature that was also created on the tablet last night. It’s disgusting.

Wanna Buy A Watch?

Did you watch the latest Republican debate? The final debate before Super Tuesday as every debate is the final debate before something. I did and it was a slobberknocker. Basically it was Ted and Marco versus The Donald. It couldn’t have been much worse than if Trump was caught between the Pope, Vicente Fox, and Mitt Romney.

First impression I got was how sad it was to see President George H.W. Bush and former First Lady Barbara at the debate after Jeb had dropped out. It’s like your parents going to your little league game after you were kicked off the team.

The high point of the debate that will be talked about Friday was when Marco Rubio stated that if Donald Trump hadn’t inherited $200 million, he’d be selling watches in Manhattan. That was a good one. It was so prepared that Marco is pretend selling broken Trump watches at his site. You don’t actually get a watch but you get the privilege of giving Marco $10.00. The remark was as prepared as the audience because Rubio’s people had planted screamers to react to everything Marco said. It was annoying. This was supposed to be a debate, not Beatlemania.

But Marco came out swinging at Trump. He attacked him for his fortune, his taxes, his hiring illegals, his fake university, his lawsuits, donating to Democrats and charities (Republicans are so terrible that donating to charitable causes will be used agaist you), his bankruptcies,, his lack of specifics, and I’m kinda surprised he didn’t squeeze a “your mama is so ugly” in there somewhere. He hit Trump on issues that aren’t new, some out there for over a decade. Someone discovered Google.

Cruz was more than happy to join the pile-on. The thing is, where was this before? Why did they wait until the tenth debate to go hard against Trump? Rubio has yet to win a primary or a caucus and he’s behind Trump by double digits in his home state of Florida. Cruz is barely leading Trump in his state of Texas and has a lead in Arkansas, but that’s it. Did they do a Christie and hurt Trump without helping themselves? Quite possible. If Rubio loses Florida, it’s over for him. If he wins Florida, which is over two weeks from now and several primaries away, and half the delegates are already gone…it’s still probably over. Rubio might actually working on Campaign 2020 at this point.

For Trump, who states he can shoot a guy and his supporters will still love him, will any attack hurt him? Plus, people may not really interpret anything that was said as it was mostly inaudible as all three guys were talking over each other most of the night. Trump’s defense against his rivals were that Cruz is a liar and a basketcase and Rubio suffers from meltdowns.

Oh yeah, John Kasich and Dr. Ben Carson were also on the stage. Kasich, who is NOT a moderate, is the most qualified and prepared for the presidency out of all these guys. Carson, desperate for time, begged for someone to attack him. Seriously.

Republican Road Rage

I hate the Clown Car analogy that’s been tossed around to describe the Republican candidates for president. It’s not that I disagree with the description. It’s that it’s a lazy analogy and not creative at all. If Chris Matthews uses it then you shouldn’t (and it’s an analogy he repeats every day). So I may be the only American editorial cartoonist (who’s not a conservative hacker) who has not used that analogy. But after seeing the last Republican debate (I didn’t watch all of it, just the hightlights), it did remind me of family road trips from Hell.

Sorry if this brings up bad memories. I was raised the youngest and had an older brother and sister so I probably can’t complain about them being the pain in the butt…it was me. I also have a younger sister and brother but I wasn’t raised with them. Long story.

I never intended to insert Kasich into this cartoon. As I was lettering the text I thought how funny it would be if he was left at a rest stop (probably in Ohio). There’s always that kid without any charisma that you forget, sometimes because the other kids are competing for attention. At the debate before the New Hampshire primary Kasich was forgotten. It took Chris Christie to remind the moderators that they forgot to introduce Governor Blah.

Chatty Marco

Chatty Cathys haven’t been made since the 1950’s but everyone knows what they are. It’s a pretty good insult for someone who won’t get off the phone…or shut up. The Rubio campaign should love this comparison.

Marco Rubio is a very talented politician. Of course being a talented politician doesn’t always mean you’re talented at accomplishments. You may only be talented at running for office. For years people in politics, members of both parties, have made accusations that Rubio is a talking points kind of guy. He’s good in a debate, giving a speech, conducting an interview, but he’s not good if he has to stray from the talking points, or if he runs out of them.

Chris Christie has been harping about this for a while but nobody’s been listening because he’s Chris Christie. He finally got his chance during Saturday’s GOP debate. Rubio went into his talking point about “Obama knowing what he’s doing and he’s transforming the country, blah blah blah.” Christie said “there it is. That’s his “memorized 25-second speech.” Marco responded by repeating the same talking point and Christie nailed him with an interruption and pointing out he was doing the speech again. Shortly after this exchange Rubio gave the same talking points again. Yikes. It as like going to see Skynyrd and they play “Free Bird” for two hours.

It’s the kind of thing that could be damaging. This could be hurtful on a Howard Dean Scream level.

This will probably hurt Rubio Tuesday night in the New Hampshire primary and not help Christie at all. Christie doesn’t get points because Rubio sucks. He’s just really good at being a bully and fun to watch while doing so.

Update and correction: A sharp reader of mine pointed out that Chatty Cathys were sold during the 1960’s, not the 1950’s as I had written. I actually went to the Wikipedia site for Chatty Cathy looking for information on it and still messed it up. I was born in the 1960’s but I don’t remember them (most people can’t remember that decade for other reasons). Plus, I never played with dolls for girls. I swear. I had superheroes, GI Joes, a Fonzie and even the Sweat Hogs from Welcome Back Kotter.

Trump Vs. Kelly

Donald Trump is skipping the next GOP debate. He’s upset with debate moderator, and the host, Fox News.

He’s still sore Megyn Kelly asked him if making sexists, derogatory remarks toward women is presidential. How dare she. He feels it’s unfair. A lot of people have pointed out that he can’t handle Kelly and he’s afraid of her. Others say it’s more about Fox News, which he’s appeared on over 130 times since he’s announced and he appeared on Wednesday night. Fox News sent out a very snarky statement regarding Trump skipping their debate, which for a news organization, wasn’t very professional.

I don’t blame Trump for not being in love with Fox’s statement but I do think he’s afraid of intelligent women. Why do you think he marries super models and hangs out with Sarah Palin? Hillary Clinton, who withstood the Benghazi committee’s questioning for eleven hours, will eat Trump alive.

The biggest reason Trump is skipping the debate is that he wants to control the format. If anyone else skipped the debate it would hurt their exposure. For Trump, it’s increasing. Trump is controlling the format and the dialogue.

I posted a question on social media yesterday asking if I should draw on this topic, or the Bundy militia (not that I won’t do both). Some people brought up a very valid point that I shouldn’t give any exposure to Trump. I appreciate that anyone would believe I’m influential enough to have an impact on the national conversation. But Trump isn’t in the conversation…he is the conversation.

I get comments on the way I draw Trump’s hair. At first I felt it was a bit too much and it doesn’t really look anything like his hair, just a representative that he has ridiculous hair. But all the comments are positive and most of all, I found I don’t have to put a label on him. The hair is the label. Speaking of hair, Megyn Kelly got a haircut which meant I had to put a little more research into this cartoon.

My last two cartoons were kinda hard hitting so I wanted to tone it down a bit with my next one, thus I frighten my clients. While the hard hitting stuff on police shootings and anti-choice terrorists do very well on the internet, not always great for today’s newspapers which makes me sad. My next cartoon will probably be on the Bundy militia and I can’t promise how scary that will turn out. Stay tooned.

Here’s the rough.

A Republican Promise

Other than the ten-minute argument between Trump and Cruz over birtherism and New York values, what you can get from the latest Republican debate is that they promise to get rid of Obama. The only way to sum up the rest of the debate is that they’re all idiots.

Jeb Bush says the country is worse now than before Obama became president. He must be thinking of his brother’s tenure in the Oval Office. Osama is dead, gas prices are under two bucks a gallon, and we still have an automobile industry. Also, employment is up and the rate of government spending has slowed down greatly.

They still don’t understand the U.S. military is the strongest in the world.

They’re promising that if Iran ever takes U.S. sailors hostage again that they’ll get them released quicker than ten hours, which is what Obama did.

Some want to ban all Muslims from entering the country and others only want to ban some Muslims.

They still hate brown people. They still love guns and God. Rubio said our rights come from God, not the government.

All of the candidates are running against Obama, despite Obama leaving office next January. Chris Christie made the dumbest statement of the night, which is quite an achievement considering there were other Republicans on stage, including Ben Carson. Christie said “I hope the President is watching tonight because here’s what I’d like to tell him. We are going to kick your rear end out of the White House come this fall.”

Christie, you’re not kicking anybody anywhere. Obama is leaving in January whether a Republican wins the White House or it goes to Bernie or Hillary. I expect by the next debate Christie will be kicked to the kids’ table.

These guys should be grateful Obama is limited to two terms. He’d clean their clocks in another election.

Time To Unfriend

I made comments about making a Star Wars analogy this week but I honestly didn’t plan to. What do you know, I got one in anyway.

There’s been a social media trend over the past few weeks to ditch friends on social media who support Trump. I’ve seen posts stating “if you support Donald Trump then go ahead and unfriend me now.” A lot of people don’t have patience or tolerance for the Trump Trolls.

I think most people don’t like to hear anything they disagree with. But c’mon. It didn’t take Donald Trump to reveal which of your friends are bigots, racists, homophobic, xenophobic jerks.

Yes, it’s hard to tolerate someone who supports a candidate who runs a campaign like a school yard bully without any specifics. It’s hard to reason with someone who supports bigotry and can’t grasp nuance. But I take the position that it’s good to know which of my friends are idiots and support the total and complete destruction of the United States of America.

I’m not unfriending anyone for supporting Trump. It goes the other way too and if they’ve spent all these years tolerating my liberal views, which they hate, then I can put up with their being a troll. Well, at least the ones who haven’t blocked me yet.

Sloppy, hateful politics I can tolerate. If you spoil Star Wars for me I’ll kill you. Not literally, but in the virtual world I will do to you what Obi Wan Kenobi did to Darth Maul. Yes, I will chop you in half and drop you down a seemingly bottomless energy shaft on Naboo.

In fact, anytime I see “Star Wars” in a post I continue scrolling. I won’t finish reading the sentence. I will not read a review, no matter how bold the text claims it doesn’t contain spoilers. I’m going to see the movie anyway so no review can influence whether I see the movie or not. The bad thing is, I might be the last person to see the movie. I need to find a way to go into a Facebook/Twitter carbonite freeze until I see the movie.

Bomb Hoax

Wouldn’t it be nice if Republicans could express as much concern for stuff that happens as they do for stuff that doesn’t happen?

Republicans and conservatives are still upset over a student taking a clock to school. They referred to it as a fake bomb even thought it wasn’t ever a “fake bomb.” It was a clock.

During Tuesday night’s Republican debate the candidates talked about our climate of fear and made several references to the day’s bomb scares in Los Angeles and New York City. They made it out to be Obama’s fault there are bomb threats. They expressed concern for how the event would scar children. I guess Republicans aren’t aware that school shootings inflict a hell of a lot more trauma on children than bomb scares.

How many times did the GOP candidates mention school shootings, the recent shooting at Planned Parenthood, or any mass shootings that weren’t committed by a Muslim? Zero.

The entire night was about ISIS. ISIS is responsible for the shooting in San Bernardino and Operation Rescue and all of the GOP candidates who perpetuated lies on PP share responsibility for the shooting in Colorado.

We can talk about ISIS and bombing them until the “sand glows” but we can’t talk about Americans shooting Americans.

Here’s what disqualifies a candidate for the presidency: Saying we’re in World War III. Wanting to start World War III. Saying ISIS wants to destroy our way of life, they hate us for our freedom, or if they’re an actual threat to conquer our country.. If you don’t have an understanding of the situation then you can’t combat the situation. Other statements that should disqualify a candidate is stating they’ll shoot down Russian jets, you wish George W. Bush was still president, and that Donald Trump is more qualified than Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders, or a block of fermented cheese.

The entire night was about Killing, war, killing, hating Muslims, killing, hating Hispanics, and killing. The room was full of gung ho draft dodgers and people who never served.

The candidates also had it out over immigration. I’m starting to think Ted Cruz’s and Marco Rubio’s families fled Cuba to get away from Hispanics. They really don’t seem to like their own ethnicity.

Jeb actually had the best one-liner. He said he doesn’t get his information from the shows like Trump and he didn’t know if those shows were on Saturday mornings or Sunday mornings. It was so good I doubt most Republican will understand it.

The only other highlights of last night’s debate were Carson still comes off confused, Carly is still lying, Rand Paul is talking the most sense so he’s killing himself, Christie and Jeb both might have helped their causes, and there was a massive make out session between Trump and Cruz. Who won the debate? I think Rubio has done the best through all the debates until last night. Rubio still did well but it looks to me that Cruz built upon his momentum. On top of all that, Republicans really like red ties. Fiorina wore a red dress.

Political analysts were saying this is the Christmas debate, as it’s what people will be talking about during the holidays. No they won’t. They won’t remember there was a debate. They’ll be talking about Star Wars.

Speaking of Star Wars, I made a sarcastic post yesterday on social media that I had to work a Star Wars analogy into my next cartoon. I was poking fun at all my colleagues who are all racing to do Star Wars.

claytoonz

Nationally Syndicated Editorial Cartoonist