A lot of economists said the current Wall Street meltdown was inevitable. Some even warned that something wicked was this way coming, before it all went pear shaped. But when the money is free and easy, and Wall Street is running along in a single hungry, amorphous blob, try getting in the way of that Greenspanian momentum…

And don’t get me started on homeowners. What’s interesting is that salaries remained fairly flat over the past few years, but nobody made too much of a fuss, because they were just tapping home equity in lieu of raises, and could therefore still buy Viking stoves and Hummers, despite the fact their incomes couldn’t support it.

What a big greedy mess. And whether we like or not we’re all going to pay somehow. Speaking of which, I thought I’d share this note I got from Hank Paulson in February. He asked for a copy of a cartoon I did on the whole mortgage meltdown and the affect it has on all of us, not just the foreclosed. I picture the cartoon sitting on his desk, oracle-like, micro-steering his every decision on whether or not to inject billions of dollars into saving one financial institution or another, or another…

Probabaly a bit overstated, but the silly, vapid invent-a-fact campaign of McCain/Palin is actually working! Oh well, there’s still time for Obama to go, silly vapid and invent-a-fact too. Span and beans, Span and eggs, Span and chips….

The laughable idea of the GOP throwing around charges of misogyny and sexism against a Democrat is too precious to ignore, but I couldn’t bring myself to draw some pig with lipstick to illustrate that. If you go and look elsewhere on the web, you’ll see a lot of lipsticked pigs in cartoons…

Yesterday, I was in the city for a panel discussion at The Museum of The City of New York (the details of which are in the post below, so I won’t retype all that…) Apart from the fact my microphone was working perfectly and everyone could hear everything I was saying, it was a great event. The discussion ranged from the current Presidential race to races past and the role race itself played/plays in electoral politics – Particularly in the form of racial stereotypes. It’s always nice to get away from the drawing table and actually talk to the people who read our cartoons, and be reminded of the serious historical context political cartoons are seen in. In case you have trouble imagining what me speaking to actual people looks like – Here’s a pic (but taken at another appearance I had on Monday, at The Westport Y’s Women…Photo credit: Phyllis Groner, WestportNow.com)

On another important note. As a result of yesterday, I didn’t have time to draw a cartoon for today. September 11th. At first I felt negligent, as it somehow feels like a moral duty to draw something for this sombre event. But as I was driving in to my office this morning listening to Brian Lehrer on the radio (as always,) I was looking up at the very same beautiful piece of sky that one of the jets sliced through on its diabolical, seven years-old journey to the World Trade Center a few moments away. I realized that every cartoon I have drawn since September 11th, 2001 has been somehow affected by that single event. Almost everything we as a nation have done politically since then was borne from that surreal and shocking moment. I have at times agreed, but more often disagreed with our choices, and I see my cartoon responses as a miniscule, but constant tribute to those who lost so much. It is important not that we do something to repair the damage that was brought upon our collective humanity on that day, but that we do the right thing. How can it be that something that sounds so simple, be so difficult to achieve? I suspect it’s because we’re human – And as I saw yesterday, our history books are filled with political cartoons that illustrate that exquisitely. I consider it humbling, sobering and a privilege to be part of that long, black-ink spattered line.

I’ll be back with a drawing tomorrow to break this respectful moment of cartooning silence.

Here’s a pic of me giving a speech to The Westport Y’s Women on monday

I’m appearing at this event tonight! So…If you just happen to be wandering along around 103rd and 5th Ave at 6:30PM, and you have some time to spare…

WEDNESDAY • SEPTEMBER 10 • 6:30 PM
The Art of Ill Will: The Story of American Political Cartoons

Cartoons are a powerful weapon in political campaigns, helping to shape public opinion while often reflecting and reinforcing stereotypes of their era. Join leading cartoonists and cartoon experts in an illustrated discussion on the role of political cartoons in presidential campaigns. Moderator Marty Goldensohn, producer of Brian Lehrer Live, will be joined by Donald Dewey, author of The Art of Ill Will: The Story of American Political Cartoons (New York University Press, 2007); Matt Davies, Pulitzer Prize-winning editorial cartoonist, The Journal News; Jimmy Margulies, nationally syndicated editorial cartoonist, The Record; and Ted Rall, widely considered the most controversial syndicated cartoonist in the United States. Presented in conjunction with Campaigning for President: New York and the American Election.

RESERVATIONS REQUIRED
$9 General admission
$5 Museum members, Seniors, and Students

For more information please call 212.534.1672, ext. 3395.

“I can’t in good conscience support a tax cut in which so many of the benefits go to the most fortunate among us.” – Senator John McCain (R-AZ) on President Bush’s tax cuts, 2001

“Of course, I might lie constantly too, if I were seeking the Republican presidential nomination and I had opposed the Bush tax cuts”
-Ann Coulter on John McCain, January 2008

The old John McCain would have agreed wholeheartedly with this cartoon. The old John McCain would recognize the that the Bush tax cuts for the top 2% didn’t quite create the sound economic growth that was theorized. I hear a lot of very, very fortunate people complain that Obama is going to raise their taxes because they are “rich.” Actually he is just planning to allow the taxes to reset back to the rate paid by the wealthy during the Clinton years, which, funnily enough, was the most economically robust period in recent history (pop goes the theory that taxing the rich kills the economy…) Obama is also planning to cut taxes for people earning less than $250,000 a year, but McCain and Palin are predictably going around telling people he’s raising their taxes. If Obama can’t counter their childishness, he probably deserves to lose.

McCain likes to say he always puts country first, but giving himself a tax cut, and ignoring his country’s deficit doesn’t really sound very selfless. The old John McCain would be disgusted by such a deriliction of American principles.

During his acceptance speech, John McCain warned of a faceless bureaucratic monolith presiding over our health care. Us lucky bastards with expensive health insurance already have that, don’t we?

To make his newfound “change” message believable McCain has to show Americans that he is not ideologically tied to Bush & Cheney. At the Republican National Convention, McCain appeared to be the only orator who didn’t adhere to the brutish, dog-eared culture-war script that was seemingly passed from speaker to speaker. So I think that was a point in his favor – Though he did demonize making healthcare available to all, which I think is odd in the current economic climate. But as the days get shorter, people will quickly forget GOP convention antics. Then it will be running mate Palin’s hard-right ideological rigidity that will make McCain’s independence a tough sell beyond the party faithful. That is, if voters can get past her being easy-on-the-eye and that disarming “Fargo” accent…
If not, Sarah Palin will then be sent in as part of the team charged with repairing damage wrought by her ideological heroes.

If humans could harness irony as an alternative fuel, the GOP convention would actually have been able to reduce our dependence on oil this week.

I drew this cartoon only because US Presidents have to make lots and lots of really really important decisions with huge consequences and a campaign is a great way to watch an individual make lots and lots of really, really important decisions with huge consequences. Democracy is a truly remarkable process.

On a positive note – I thought Fred Thompson gave a mostly good speech at the RNC Convention last night. His brilliant and heart-rending description of McCain’s time in captivity was truly moving and beautifully delivered. I think THAT was the Fred Thompson everyone expected to run for President. Also, cartooning aside, I like John McCain, the man. I have even been lucky enough to spend a little time talking with him one on one. But in order to get the backing of his party he has to step in line and do bizarre things like pick a person like Sarah Palin for Veep. There were other truly impressive men and women he could have picked, but she fit the ideological profile he needed to placate the base. While the RNC might be sated by what he just did, the free world needs a wholly different type of American President right now.