Joe Biden's running mate has a weakness

During my career as a political cartoonist one of the questions I got asked a lot was what comes first; the picture or the words?

In my case, neither.

I’m always on the lookout for a quote or news event I can use as a springboard to make a statement of my own. The point I want to make comes first and then I figure out who’s going to say what and the image that will go along with those words.

The cartoon above is a perfect example.

The Trump campaign decided to attack Kamala Harris as being soft on crime and the hypocrisy of that is fairly obvious to anyone who’s been paying attention and hasn’t suffered a recent head injury.

Trump commuted Roger Stone’s sentence, the investigation into Michael Flynn has been dropped and a variety of Trump’s associates either got very light sentences or were allowed to go home early and serve the rest of their sentences at home.

So take the “soft on crime” charge, mix it with Trump’s track record and you have a cartoon idea and now you just have to decide how it’s going to be presented.

Unfortunately or fortunately – depending on your political point of view – a cartoonist gets to make one statement a day so a lot of cartoon-worthy ideas can fall through the cracks.

Here are a few stories that caught my eye, but have not been turned into cartoons…yet.

The CDC versus the Kansas City Royals

Not that long ago, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention changed their policy and said coronavirus testing is not necessary for people who have been in close contact with infected people. It’s suspected that the change in policy originated in the Department of Health and Human Services and came out of meetings of the White House coronavirus task force.

Great idea: as President Trump has pointed out many times, we wouldn’t have so many COVID-19 cases if we quit testing people.

Wait…now that I read that I realize it’s moronic: actually, we’d have the exact same amount of COVID-19 cases, we just wouldn’t know who has it and who ought to skip giving Nana a big hug at the next family gathering.

Bottom line: it would appear the Trump Administration is willing to use the CDC for its own political purposes, which in turn makes the CDC less credible and if there’s anything America needs right now, it’s more uncertainty.

Now throw this log on the fire.

Turns out the CDC has sent a letter to the nation’s governors asking them to get ready to set up vaccine distribution sites by Nov. 1…two days before the election. So brace yourself for a miracle cure 48 hours before you vote which will be enough time to change some people’s minds, but won’t be enough time to find out if the miracle cure actually worked.

Meanwhile…

Due to coronavirus concerns the Kansas City Royals have canceled their annual FanFest – a winter gathering of Royals and their fans – scheduled to be held January 29th and 30th.

So two days before the election it would appear the Trump campaign is going to try to convince us the coronavirus crisis is over and nearly three months after the election the Kansas City Royals are going to say don’t show up for FanFest because there’s still a pandemic going on.

Frankly, after the past five months I’m more likely to trust the medical advice of the Royals.  

COVID-19 and college

This morning’s Kansas City Star reports that at least 1,400 Kansas college students and staff have COVID-19 and we’re barely out of the gate. Meanwhile, over at Mizzou, 330 students are in trouble for violating mask mandates, sneaking guests into residence halls or holding parties.

So the institutes of higher learning feel they can reopen safely and are depending on the maturity of 19-year-olds to do it.

Hard to see what could go wrong.

To stop voter fraud; vote twice

Donald Trump – who has been warning us about voter fraud – is now encouraging people who mail in their ballots to show up at the polls on Election Day to see if their ballot was counted and if it wasn’t, vote again.

Couple problems with this idea.

First, as the Kansas City Star reported: “information on whether a ballot has been counted is typically not available right away.” Second, voting twice is illegal. So the same guy warning us about voter fraud is now encouraging it.

You really can’t make this stuff up.

Joe Biden has extremist allies

This charge comes from a president who doesn’t mind promoting some of the conspiracy theories of QAnon – the people who believe cannibals are in charge of our governments – thinks it’s OK for right-wing militias to show up with weapons and patrol public streets, can’t seem to find a bad word to say about police brutality and cops who shoot unarmed Black men and, after a clash between protestors and white supremacists, said there were “some very fine people on both sides.”

Clearly, if I’m going to keep up with current events, I need to start drawing six cartoons a day.

http://kingfeatures.com/comics/editorial-cartoons-a-z/