Now here’s a criticism of Muir that would sing better to my ears: That the extra scrutiny of Hillary’s courting of African American voters in the upcoming primaries is largely because she’s white. That means that Muir has opened himself up to the same level of scrutiny as he’s given Hillary.

By the way… I’ve never seen any photos of Muir. Are we just assuming that he’s a white guy?

He KNOWS blackface is condescending, his portrayal of Hillary was meant to reflect his criticism about how her campaign has tried to court the black vote recently.

I also fear that the real offense isn’t so much the use of blackface, but that it was Hillary, a Democrat, who was the one in the blackface. If a Bush Administration member was put in blackface in a Doonesbury strip, there’d be less of a stir.

And I hate writing that last paragraph. Because no one will be persuaded by it. Either people will already agree with it, or will just assume that I’m a Republican / Hillary Hater. I hate thinking that there is a double standard for people of differeing political beliefs. I try to deny its existence, but time and again it keeps showing itself to me.

TheTalkingGuy, Muir isn’t using Damon as a mouthpiece. He’s a character, not a sock puppet. He thought he could “get away with it” because he portrays Damon in such a positive light, that people wouldn’t mistake the blackface as a statement about blacks. If anyone has any right to be offended, it’s Hillary.

I guess Muir underestimated how much people who disagree with a political statement will do what they can to tar and feather the messenger, as opposed to actually criticize the point being made.

And on that note of actually talking about relevant political issues…

“I know a guy–who is an African American Minister–and his parrish–votes “together”. They do this because they see it as a necessary evil of getting officials elected that AREN’T biased or more partisan towards their cause.”

I somehow doubt that this tactic is actually bringing out less partisan politics. Does this create elected officials who are more likely to reach across to compromise with opposition? I doubt it makes a difference when it comes to partisanship. In fact, it makes it

The tendency of blacks to vote straight ticket Democrat is what’s kept them less relevant to general elections. They get taken for granted by the elected Democrats, because they are less likely to go to another candidate.

This is what contributes to candidates like Hillary making a moves that invite criticism like Muir’s. In seeking the D’s nomination in 2008, she’s trying to reach out to a demographic that she hasn’t traditionally had to compete for. This leads to the occasional misstep.

Now here’s a criticism of Muir that would sing better to my ears: That the extra scrutiny of Hillary

So yeah, I made that generalization because I’m from the buckle of the bible belt and I’ve seen it in action. If you think that people vote freely of the opinion of others than I think you may have some drugs I’d like you to share with me.

It might be different if Damon was a developed character and not a sockpuppet for Muir’s own views. As is…it is kind of….sad.

Well… I do know a black Republican who says a lot of the same things Damon does, on a regular basis. He claims not to be a fan of Dubya, but he’s awfully quick to carry water for his fellow political ideologues.

Of course, he’s not nearly as cruel or withering as Damon, which has always been the weird part of the strip- why is he even with a woman he considers an idiot, and why does she put up with him?

Life may not be for the timid, and I can’t say that I agree with such a pessimistic idea, but that doesn’t mean that common courtesy should die a bloody death in an alley.

I’m tired of hearing things are “over the top” or “wounding” or “offensive” or “insensitive”. Life is not for the timid and certainly not political life. We are not small children that must or should be shielded. If you really are horribly adversely affected by this or “wounded”, get out of the house more often and quit being so self-absorbed.

What Muir has been doing has always struck me as weird…like he has comments to make about the black community, but couches them by having them come out of the mouth of an African American disguise for himself. The fact that he is now attacking Hillary for “pandering” to black people is hilarious to me.

If I had seen the last panel alone, I would have been completely offended as a Black man. However, having read the entire strip, it did get more of a chuckle than I expected.

I think Muir’s execution is clueless and clumsy regarding the last panel. (David Brothers’ satire is sharper and funnier.) But I agree with Muir that Clinton and way too many Democrats view Black people as a monolithic group, which is far from the truth, and make fools of themselves as a result.

I don’t think he sees the problem there.

Imagine if people could just learn to empathize and act like intelligent, mature, civilized human beings.

To be fair, since when was political cartooning ever used to make SUBTLE points?

But Muir does walk a tightrope here, but in context it’s not as bad as the panel by itself.

I think just showing the final panel from the strip here does Muir a great injustice. The full context helps, especially when the character who’s talking critically of Hillary in the prior two panels is one of the main characters of the strip, Damon, who’s African American, and Republican.

Much of angrier critique stems from the fact that Muir presents a mostly right of center point of view. Those politically opposed will jump on anything possible to tar and feather opponents.

The less angry critique stems from the treating some words and imagery as “third rails” that are supposedly so taboo that context becomes irrelevant. A philosophy that I don’t subscribe to.

I’m tempted to cite individuals on the left who’ve used racist imagery to belittle opponents, with little to no backlash, but I’d think it’s more of evasion of the actual issue at hand by saying “But he got away with it!”

Agreed, I’m an african-american male, and was put off by the cartoon. If there was a cartoon of Condi in white-face I’d probably take the a slightly opposite position “I’d vote for a disingenious Democrat than a pandering Republican any day.

Um, no. As much as people like to portray “the black vote” as some monolithic, lemming-like entity, it’s simply not the case. That’s an ignorant stereotype built off of the traditionally strong support Democrats receive thanks to Republicans generally not courting them at all. It also ignores the larger percentage of blacks (and Americans, in general) who don’t bother to vote at all.

As for the cartoon, I think it works just fine as a hard-edged satirical bit, and to be honest, I kind of agree with the sentiment behind it as Clinton has always come off as willing to say whatever it takes to get elected. Not unlike her husband, but with nowhere near his flair or charisma.

Eh, doesn’t seem as bad as State of the Union.

Do you have an example of this? I don’t think I’ve ever seen a cartoon that caricatured Rice in the latter two ways; as for the space between her teeth, that’s precisely the sort of detail that a caricaturist lives for, and I’m not familiar with a stereotype of African Americans having a gap between their front teeth.

All of this, of course, is beside the point that Day By Day on its best day is a desperately unfunny strip.

There really is a damn double standard in dealing with both sides of the political spectrum and it gets annoying.

But that’s precisely Muir’s point – especially if you read the panel in context. He’s mocking her for (as he sees it) chasing black voters in such an inept way.

I don’t think the artist realized that blackface was done by white people to emulate and insult blacks. This wouldn’t be pandering at all, it’d be insulting flat-out. So, there’s a logic problem right there at the start.

Jake made a good point when he mentions that inappropriate use of slang would’ve made for a much better and funnier punchline.

“Senator, what are your plans for 2008?”

“To lower taxes. *pause* Yo.”