Political Cartoon #5

1.  This political cartoon was drawn by Taylor Jones.
2.  The key objects are the elephants being rode by candidates, which is ultimately meant to represent the GOP race.  The candidates represent themselves.  The gun in the background is meant to represent hostility.
3.  The cartoonist certainly uses a lot of caricature to represent their points.  The expressions of the candidates readily give away the cartoonist's view of their emotions, and the GOP race, as a literal race, on elephants, which represent the Republican party is a funny add-on.  The cartoonist also uses placement of the figures to give meaning and intuition into their expressions and how each candidate is currently feeling.
4.  The cartoon deals with the Iowa Caucus that just occured.  Mitt Romney (the candidate on the elephant in the lead) won Iowa, very closely folled by Rick Santorum, who was closely followed by Ron Paul.  Newt Gingrich took up fourth place, with Rick Perry coming in fifth.  The candidates are represented on their elephants thus in this cartoon.  The cartoon shows how Mitt Romney, Rick Santorum, and Ron Paul are near the top and have the best chances for the nomination, followed by a persistant Newt Gingrich, who, holding a gun, seems to be more than willing to fight for his top position in the race.  You can see by the expression on Romney's face that he's a little nervous that Santorum is so closeby, and as the two face-off, you can see Ron Paul eyeing them down, wanting to gain more of a lead.
5.  The cartoon says a lot about the current goings-on of the GOP race.  It definitely says that Gingrich is ready to put up a fight and is not ready to lose the race yet, despite not doing very well in the caucus.  It's definitely showing that Romney's straining to keep the lead, and that Santorum and Paul are well on the route to undermining Romney's lead, even though he won Iowa.  The cartoon makes clear that the race is far from over and that there's still much more to come.
6.  The cartoonist's point of view is that Romney better watch his back because the others are gaining momentum, and that Gingrich is not ready to be out of the race yet.  A funny kind of side note that the cartoonist added, whether willingly or not, is that they didn't even include Rick Perry in the cartoon, perhaps inferring that he's insignificant and that he should just drop out of the race.