QUESTION OF THE WEEK #1

At this point, Rick Perry kind of looks like a joke to most people.  He's had some particular moments that have caused people to question his intelligence and his accountability.  He gave a speech in New Hampshire that left people wondering whether he was drunk when he gave it.  It was almost like he was trying to be a comedian, but just ended up coming off as crazy.  When asked about his thoughts on the speech at a later date, he had no regrets on the speech and thought it was a success and that people really responded well to it.  He also seems to have some senior moments.  While explaining which three agencies he would cut if he were made President, he forgot what the third one was.  He doesn't seem to have given much thought to those issues if he can so easily forget one of them, leaving the people wondering if he would really be a capable president.  He also had some disasters in debates early on in the race that really affected people's vision of him, and shifted their focus to Herman Cain.  I suppose he could win if Mitt Romney continued switching opinions on issues and if this Herman Cain scandal amounts to much more than it already is, or if some scandal arises about Mitt Romney or the other Republican candidates.  He really seems like an unsuitable option at this point though. 

Political Cartoon #1

1.  This political cartoon was drawn by John Darkow.
2.  The main object is of course the gigantic, fat superman, meant to represent the supercommittee assigned to trying to find a solution to our debt problems.  Then there's the small telephone booth which represents the country's deficit and the debt that we owe, whihc is constricting the supercommittee and not letting them get out of this situation.  Then there's the newspaper box next to the phone booth that declares an epic fail, representing the failure of the supercommittee to produce a solution.  There's also the moon in the background, symbolizing the end of the day, and the end of the time period allotted to the supercommittee to come up with a solution to the problem.
3.  The cartoon uses ridicule and humor, because it mocks the 'supercommittee' by making it this fat, dressed up character, that is stuck in an embarassing situation of not being able to get out of the telephone booth.
4.  The event that the cartoon deals with is the supercommittee that has been assigned the task of finding a way to make cuts or somehow raise money to get rid of some of this debt that we have, and the upcoming deadline of that committee, and their failure to actually come up with a solution.
5.  The cartoon is saying that the supercommittee is unable to budge because it's trapped by the federal deficit.  No one knows what to do with it, and there's no way to escape it, so the committee is trapped, and they've come up with no solution of how to get past the federal deficit.  The cartoon demonstrates that the supercommittee just wants to get out of the situation their in, and they want to depend on others (911) to help them do so.  It also shows the public's thinking that the supercommittee is a failure because of what the newspaper says.
6.  The cartoonist thinks that the supercommittee is embarassing and foolish, and hasn't gotten anything done really, because they're trapped in by the deficit, and that they're simply looking for a way out of it at this point, when the deadline of their committee is closing in.  The cartoonist thinks that the supercommittee was a gigantic failure.

QUESTION OF THE WEEK #5

Honestly, at this point, I think that Mitt Romney is going to win the GOP race for nomination.  All of the other candidates have faced issues that are going to be hard to come back from and Romney seems to have the cleanest record and the best campaign.  Herman Cain seemed like a real opponent for Romney until these allegations of sexual harassment came forward.  His response towards them have brought real question to the truth behind these allegations and it'll be how they progress which will determine if he'll succeed in winning the nomination.  Michelle Bachman has kind of fallen out of the race almost.  I hear almost nothing about her when compared to the rest of the candidates, and from what I have heard, she doesn't really know what she's talking about.  Rick Perry has a seemingly clean record, but his speeches have left an impression of him that has left some people questioning his sanity.  In a speech he gave in New Hampshire, he sounded drunk, and it's been made fun of on late night shows already, indicating the fact that America thinks he's kind of a joke.  Mitt Romney has had the best impact so far, but a big problem in his case is the fact that he keeps changing his position on key issues.  At different points in time he's stated completely different opinions from ones given before.  This is going to cause a real trust issue with people as they start to question whether he's actually going to follow through on the ideas that he's portraying.  Overall, the Republicans have put together a rather lacking bunch of potential nominees. 

Current Event #5

http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/lawyer-4th-cain-accuser-will-speak-publicly-monday/2011/11/07/gIQA6KwPvM_story.html

In the last week, three, now four women have come forward anonymously to accuse Herman Cain of sexual harassment in the '90s when he worked for the National Restaurant Association.  One of the women has even said that he tried to persuade her to accompany him to a corporate hotel room.  The fourth accuser has not yet spoken, but is backed up by a celebrity lawyer named Gloria Allred.  She's put together a tough defense and it'll be hard for Cain to counter now that four people are coming forward.  Cain has not handled the attack well though.  He's denied all claims, but his denial has been shaky at times.  These accusations came forward just as he was becoming a frontrunner with Mitt Romney in the GOP race for nomination, so he is beginning to blame his opponents for the accusations, claiming that Rick Perry's campaign put them forward.  This all just seems like a big excuse to me.  Surprisingly though, Cain hasn't dropped many points remains a frontrunner with Romney.  This all seems very fishy and I know that my trust in him has gone done since these allegations have come up, but more due to the way that he's dealt with them.  It will be interesting to see what the fourth accuser has to say and how her lawyer will back her up.