What's wrong with this picture?

Master craftsman Bush

Political cartoonist Robert Ariail calls The State of Columbus, South Carolina, his journalistic home. He reliably serves up conservative commentary on the national scene and can still find an occasional nice word to say about our beleaguered president. In his editorial cartoon of April 6, 2007, Ariail commiserated with Bush over Speaker Pelosi's trip to the Middle East. As the cartoonist sees it, Ms. Pelosi was trashing the president's pristine foreign policy.


While I can see some merit in using concrete as a metaphor for the president's foreign policy, there are a few problems with Ariail's artistic concept. It lacks sufficient verisimilitude. I can easily think of a more faithful model for President Bush and his foreign policy. It's none other than Homer J. Simpson and his backyard barbecue project, as seen in the Mom and Pop Art episode of the 10th season of The Simpsons.


I find this much more persuasive a symbol of the president's foreign policy accomplishments than a smooth and level expanse of competently poured and troweled concrete. Ariail has depicted Bush as a master craftsman and Pelosi as a mischievous school girl. I guess that's why he's a political cartoonist: His imagination is way beyond those of most people!