[dogbyte12]

Ramirez is saying that the politics of the situation is killing Bush, not the reality. I think he intended this reaction. If you all have seen his anti-bubba and Hillary cartoons, you would know that his politics are not what many here think they are.

The street execution was complicated. So are the politics in Iraq. The cartoon can be interpreted in multiple ways. I don't know exactly what the cartoonists attention exactly was, but it works. It makes me think about the politics of image, media over the reality on the ground.

I do know that in no way is he suggesting that the president be assasinated. He is making an argument about the media, politics, and the situation on the ground in Vietnam, being a morass, and that Iraq could be turning that way.

I am a bit dissapointed in some people here. This is a thought provoking cartoon. We are used to having everything handed to us in a spoon fed, third grade level manner, and this cartoon is provocative, and should be analyzed instead of the immediate calls for shutting down the L.A. Times, whose editorial board this guy tends to disagree with in the first place.

[ChadGore]

Re: I do know that in no way is he suggesting that the president be assasinated.

Why? Is the missing gun ? Or the missing head?

[Miss Marple]

Here's a test. Print out a copy of the cartoon. Take it to your local Wal-Mart and ask people what they think it means.

You are not allowed to show them the photo from Saigon. You are not allowed to explain it.

I will bet you $100 that most people will not ponder it in its intellectual complexity. I think the reactions will be

1. Horrible. He wants the President to be executed over Iraq.

2. Cool! He wants the President to be executed over Iraq.

If a cartoon is too complicated for most people to understand on first glance, it fails as a cartoon. This is a failure.

[huck von finn]

http://elections.harpweek.com/1Cartoons/cartoons-1860f.asp?UniqueID=4&Year=1860