CSotD: Coffee break’s over
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One good thing about Newt Gingrich moving into the forefront of the GOP Nomination Extravaganza is that he inspires more incisive commentary.
As has been noted before, others in this college of clowns have been so ridiculous that they left cartoonists with nothing to work with. Cain, Perry, Bachmann and such were like the pathetic, deluded dreamers in the first round of "American Idol" — easy pickings for mockery, but more pitiable than contemptible.
If your target steps up and hits himself in the face with a pie, how do you top that?
Well, the warm-up phase may be drawing to a close.
Not only are Newt's personal failings more epic than absurd, but he has actual policy ideas rather than extended bumpersticker phrases to be dissected and exposed. He also has a track record that can be tied into current issues rather than simply mocked.
Not sure the labels on Newt and his new honey were necessary, but otherwise, this Clay Bennett piece is about perfect.
Others have noted the incongruity of rejecting Cain for his adultery and embracing (metaphorically, that is) the equally fallible Gingrich, and certainly Gingrich's personal failings have been part of other commentary even before Cain's fall from grace.
But Bennett neatly ties the famously insensitive personal episode into a comment on current GOP politics and that's really how this medium is supposed to work.
Granted, even if Gingrich stays in the race, even if he were to beat Romney for the nomination, the fact that he's a good target for more intelligent commentary is not going to stop a lot of cartoonists from taking the easy pot-shots, as they did with Al Gore and the numerous things he never said, as they did with Clinton's zipper issues, as they did with Bush and that ridiculous flight suit.
But the horses are being led to the water, and the next move is theirs.
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