Oliphant Watch: Careful There, Obama! | The Hooded Utilitarian

The idea is clear: Obama isn’t keeping his promises and he’s getting high and mighty. A very simple point. Yet the cartoon makes no sense. Oliphant bounces his point off the fact that Obama now has a dog and dogs leave shit around the place. So?

Obama: “Promised? What did I promise?”

Axelrod: “That you wouldn’t tread in anything.”

What? What promise was that? I mean, even metaphorically, what promise was that? Obama promised that he wouldn’t get into trouble? Like, when?

Oliphant has his metaphor exactly reversed. If Obama decided he was so powerful and popular that he could now wade into every messy issue and get it resolved exactly the way he’d like, then this idea of loftily stepping into dog turds would make sense. But Obama is now as he has always been: daring in a few big things, cautious in many others. He keeps the shit off his shoes unless he sees some great, compelling reason that makes the mess worthwhile.

UPDATE: Bryan guides us here for the St. Petersburg, Fla., Times’ meter of kept/unkept Obama promises; looks like we’re at the too-early-to-tell stage. Matthew outdoes me with a roundup of recent Oliphants:

I would vote for something like this, if you want recent inscrutability. I have no idea what he’s trying to say here (bigots live in New Hampshire, even if they do legalize gay marriage?); the point seems to be a funny drawing of a grizzled hillbilly type in a wedding dress. And I agree, that’s funny, but there’s little point. …

But the drawings are as good as ever … look at Obama running some guys over with a steamroller, or these hideous human-headed vultures, or the big ass on the banks. And I can even follow what he’s trying to say with those. It’s when he tries to do some actual humor that he usually loses me. This one (which does have some charmingly simple depictions of its characters) seems to be saying that Rush Limbaugh is a hypocrite because he won’t gay-marry Dick Cheney. That’s silly. And here’s another bit of slang that recalls the “Texas tea” thing from a few weeks ago; apparently Oliphant isn’t aware of the term “rugmuncher”, but that’s what I thought of when I saw that one.

0 thoughts on “Oliphant Watch: Careful There, Obama!”

It’s like the cheap horror movie where you never clearly see the monster and your imagination creates the menace. The Fox News crowd can fill in their own brand of indignation far more effectively than Oliphant ever could.

FYI, here’s a link to the Obameter, a site maintained by the St. Petersburg Times which tracks the status of all of President’s Obama’s campaign promises. I find it an interesting way to track the news out of Washington.

http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/promises/

To date, they say Obama has broken six of his 514 campaign promises, with the lobbyist hiring policy being the most controversial.

All right, more Oliphant appreciation! I’m finding myself more and more fascinated by this guy. This particular cartoon is a stumper, but so are most all of them. No, I would vote for something like this, if you want recent inscrutability. I have no idea what he’s trying to say here (bigots live in New Hampshire, even if they do legalize gay marriage?); the point seems to be a funny drawing of a grizzled hillbilly type in a wedding dress. And I agree, that’s funny, but there’s little point. I guess you can’t come up with a winner every day.

But the drawings are as good as ever; maybe that’s why I keep coming back to the guy (with Tom’s prodding). Just look at Obama running some guys over with a steamroller, or these hideous human-headed vultures, or the big ass on the banks. And I can even follow what he’s trying to say with those. It’s when he tries to do some actual humor that he usually loses me. This one (which does have some charmingly simple depictions of its characters) seems to be saying that Rush Limbaugh is a hypocrite because he won’t gay-marry Dick Cheney. That’s silly. And here’s another bit of slang that recalls the “Texas tea” thing from a few weeks ago; apparently Oliphant isn’t aware of the term “rugmuncher”, but that’s what I thought of when I saw that one. I guess Republicans are frustrated at the competence of the nominee?

Ah well, it’s always a fun journey when trying to explore Oliphant’s mind. I can’t do it very often though, otherwise I would be driven to sputtering disbelief too regularly.

I think the idea with the Sotomayor one is that the Republicans are staging a fit over something that should make them or anyone happy, namely that a qualified Hispanic woman is getting onto the Court. Not so much that guy in the picture is frustrated as that he’s inexplicably wigging out. That’s how I read the caption’s build-up to the picture. But Oliphant queers things by having the guy chew the rug, which does signify frustration, and not have him, say, froth at the mouth.

He has these weird lapses of basic craft alongside drawing that’s leagues above anyone else around. It’s like his hands have kept getting smarter but he’s fused some crucial circuits.

Bryan on June 1, 2009 at 9:42 am said:

It’s like the cheap horror movie where you never clearly see the monster and your imagination creates the menace. The Fox News crowd can fill in their own brand of indignation far more effectively than Oliphant ever could.

FYI, here’s a link to the Obameter, a site maintained by the St. Petersburg Times which tracks the status of all of President’s Obama’s campaign promises. I find it an interesting way to track the news out of Washington.

http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/promises/

To date, they say Obama has broken six of his 514 campaign promises, with the lobbyist hiring policy being the most controversial.
Matthew J. Brady on June 2, 2009 at 12:33 pm said:

All right, more Oliphant appreciation! I’m finding myself more and more fascinated by this guy. This particular cartoon is a stumper, but so are most all of them. No, I would vote for something like this, if you want recent inscrutability. I have no idea what he’s trying to say here (bigots live in New Hampshire, even if they do legalize gay marriage?); the point seems to be a funny drawing of a grizzled hillbilly type in a wedding dress. And I agree, that’s funny, but there’s little point. I guess you can’t come up with a winner every day.

But the drawings are as good as ever; maybe that’s why I keep coming back to the guy (with Tom’s prodding). Just look at Obama running some guys over with a steamroller, or these hideous human-headed vultures, or the big ass on the banks. And I can even follow what he’s trying to say with those. It’s when he tries to do some actual humor that he usually loses me. This one (which does have some charmingly simple depictions of its characters) seems to be saying that Rush Limbaugh is a hypocrite because he won’t gay-marry Dick Cheney. That’s silly. And here’s another bit of slang that recalls the “Texas tea” thing from a few weeks ago; apparently Oliphant isn’t aware of the term “rugmuncher”, but that’s what I thought of when I saw that one. I guess Republicans are frustrated at the competence of the nominee?

Ah well, it’s always a fun journey when trying to explore Oliphant’s mind. I can’t do it very often though, otherwise I would be driven to sputtering disbelief too regularly.
Tom Crippen on June 2, 2009 at 4:58 pm said:

I think the idea with the Sotomayor one is that the Republicans are staging a fit over something that should make them or anyone happy, namely that a qualified Hispanic woman is getting onto the Court. Not so much that guy in the picture is frustrated as that he’s inexplicably wigging out. That’s how I read the caption’s build-up to the picture. But Oliphant queers things by having the guy chew the rug, which does signify frustration, and not have him, say, froth at the mouth.

He has these weird lapses of basic craft alongside drawing that’s leagues above anyone else around. It’s like his hands have kept getting smarter but he’s fused some crucial circuits.