Is it just me, or is the world getting less sane by the moment?

I don’t know if the *world* is getting less sane, but Republicans certainly are.

Is the ‘Uraguay’ typo intentional?

Honestly, I can’t say you’ve drawn more than one or two comics that I haven’t at least smirked at. But this is really something that more people need to address, and it’s also really funny.

Is the ‘Uraguay’ typo intentional?

No, it is not. Thanks for pointing it out. I’ll fix it right away.

Watch Obama’s meeting with House Republicans to see him without a teleprompter. (Or, at the very least, I’m going to make the possibly bold assumption that he couldn’t have used a teleprompter to field live questions from a chamber full of Republicans in real time.) He is just as articulate, but there are much more noticeable pauses in his speech. He appears to come up with a general idea of what he wants to say, and then freeze for a few seconds as he figures out how he wants to phrase it, and then proceeds, but when he does, he speaks as brilliantly as ever. It’s the equivalent of padding things with “um…” a lot, only instead of saying that (or anything,) it’s just dead silence. When he does figure out how he wants to put it, he sounds just as good as ever.

In other words, this is a completely normal, human way of speaking, and from it, I conclude that the teleprompters are just there so he can figure out what he wants to say beforehand and clean up those annoying pauses during the actual speech. If he had had to completely improvise his State of the Union address, it’d probably be the exact same speech but about half an hour longer after accounting for the extra dead air. Forgive me for not seeing the scandal here.

All spewing vitriol from both parties aside, I often wonder why teleprompters are used rather than a simple stack of notes.

Are we -really- saving that much money by using a plethora of large screens just to scroll text, rather than a few sheets of paper?

The part with Bob Saget was a nice touch.

Cartoon’s still a bit of a cheap shot, but certainly less of one than most by simple virtue of it having a nonzero level of accuracy.

At least Obama uses a teleprompter. It’s so much better than just scribbling notes on your hand. I’m looking at YOU, Mrs. Palin.

You all are a bunch of squawking, babbling imbeciles who are so stuck on kissing the feet of Obama that you waste no time to put down any republican/conservative, but yet get so offended when they criticize Obama that you have to pull out punches on a past presidents speaking abilities. Very thoughtful brainwashed, socialistic lemmings your going to have to do more to take down the Tea Party because we are here to “unchange” things.

And yes I went to school with Terry in forks, deflate your head some Terry there are some from forks that matriculate into higher education and get, engineering degrees followed by a medical degree ( you know “stuff” that helps our country), your not as wise as you think you are. Your smart and clever, I’ll give you that but not wise.

It’d be so, so easy to just nail you with nothing but a couple of petty insults as you have done to others here, Gias. Your comments practically have big red X’s all over them marked ‘HAMMER HERE!’ But, I think it would be better for us both if I addressed what you have to say a little more thoughtfully instead:

You… are so stuck on kissing the feet of Obama

Are you familiar with the phrase “knee-jerk?” It means forming an opinion about something based on your first impressions, rather than learning a little bit about it, first. You obviously didn’t bother to familiarize yourself with my cartoons before making sweeping generalizations about their content. Otherwise, you’d realize I’m frequently critical of Obama for faults far more serious than any concerning his public speaking abilities. For example, one cartoon immediately prior to the one you’re commenting on attacked the President for refusing to reign in the national military budget as part of reducing the deficit. Two of my most popular pieces complain about him choosing to continue some of the unconstitutional, illegal, and/or immoral policies of the Bush Administration, one of those being warrantless wiretaps of American citizens, the other being extraordinary Executive privilege. You can hardly characterize my opinion of Obama as boot-licking. Really, now.

you waste no time to put down any republican/conservative

An editorial cartoonist’s job, among other things, is to satirize elected officials when they say or do something dangerous and/or stupid. If so-called “conservative” leaders don’t want people like me making fun of them, then maybe they should get better at their jobs and quit doing so much stupid stuff!

You… get so offended when they criticize Obama

I have no problem with the idea of them criticizing Obama–as you now know, I frequently criticize him myself! The problem is with the things they choose to criticize him for: He’s a socialist; He’s an anarchist; He’s a racist; He’s a “secret muslim”; He’s not actually a US citizen; He wants to kill grandma; He’s too educated and eloquent, but he can’t talk without the use of a teleprompter…

Notice any patterns, here? Not one of these seems to be true! You can’t criticize someone for something you made up. On top of that, some of these aren’t even necessarily bad. “Too” educated? There’s no such thing. Voting for someone because he drives a pickup and you feel like he’s a “regular” guy you could have a beer with. Yeah, that’s a good idea. What happened the last time people put somebody (they thought was) like that into the Oval Office? Hmm… uh… OH YEAH.

Then there’re the “bad” things that are actually good things: He wants there to be Universal Healthcare in America; He wants to give terror suspects and noncitizens the same rights in court as citizens; He wants to stop torturing terror suspects; He wants to stop illegally monitoring transnational telecommunications; He wants to “cut and run” from the Middle East; He wants to let the gays get married… Oh hey, those don’t seem to be coming true, either! I mean, I wish they were, but apparently you’re getting what you want, as far as that stuff goes, so what the heck are you complaining about?

The main problem with most conservative criticisms of Obama is that the people putting them forward don’t just hate the stuff Obama does, they hate Obama on a personal level, like the Confederates hated Lincoln. They’re by and large senseless, and even if Obama bent over backwards and caved on every single Republican demand (which he sometimes seems to be trying awfully hard to do), they still wouldn’t be satisfied. Attempting to work together with somebody who refuses to compromise at all is a pointless, futile effort.

Last but not least, while there are plenty of legitimate things to complain about Obama doing, they all seem to parallel stuff many conservatives apparently like, ODDLY ENOUGH. You know what? Opinions like that are worthless. You can keep them.

you have to pull out punches on a past presidents speaking abilities.

That’s not what “pull punches” means.

Anyway, W. was really stupid, and stupidity is funny. I don’t make the rules.

While we’re at it, here’s an extra reminder that conservative superman Ronald Reagan was also stupid and/or evil.

Very thoughtful brainwashed, socialistic lemmings your going to have to do more to take down the Tea Party because we are here to “unchange” things.

Somebody from the “Tea Party” calling anyone else “brainwashed” is like somebody from the Manson Family doing the same thing.

And yes I went to school with Terry in forks

Well! Since I just totally owned you, I think it’d only be fair for you to reveal your actual identity, now! You know who I am, after all.

there are some from forks that matriculate into higher education and get, engineering degrees followed by a medical degree ( you know “stuff” that helps our country)

Where on Earth did this come from?? Did I say anything to insult either engineers or medical doctors?

I get what you’re implying, though–the usual Bush-Republican nonsense that the arts are irrelevant, and the only things that matter in education are readin’, ‘ritin’, and ‘rithmetic. Ever noticed that people who think this tend to be idiots?