Question of the week #1: Rick Perry

In the beginning of the Republican primaries, Rick Perry seemed to be very strong and able to keep up with the best of the Republicans. However, Perry is receiving a lot of criticism for his stumbling speeches, and forgetfulness of his own project, and this could become a large problem for his campaign in the future, and casts a lot of doubts into the minds of republicans across the country. 

One reason Perry would be able to win the nomination is if he is a governor of Texas, and has a lot of support in a highly Republican state. He has a lot of support going into the race and if he can gain more support from slightly more conservative Republicans he might be able to win more from the party as compared to some of his more moderate competitors.  

One reason why Perry might lose the primary is his problems with speaking and debating. When under stress, specifically during debates, Perry cannot keep his words straight and actually forgets his own plans. If he were to be president, he would have to be able to keep his cool, and be a strong figure of the US to look to in times of stress and pressure.

Political Cartoon #1

This political cartoon was written by Mike Keefe for the Denver Post on 11/19/11. This cartoon is a scene looking at the outside of congress, and a line graph of Congress’ approval rating. A man is leaning out the door of Congress announcing that they declared pizza to be a vegetable. The line graph is falling off the charts and actually jumps out of the picture and crashes into the ground.

The cartoon artist uses ridicule to over exaggerate the declining approval rate for Congress by having the arrow crash through the ground. The issue being referenced is Congress’ announcement that Pizza is now to be considered a vegetable. This will allow schools to serve pizza as one of the two required “vegetables” they have to serve at lunches. Many schools were making two vegetables every day and almost no one was eating them, they were just eating the pizza and a snack food, maybe one vegetable or one fruit. The schools were being forced to buy and serve vegetables that were going to waste. Now, with pizza being considered a vegetable school’s only have to serve one additional vegetable and not waste money on a second one.

The message this cartoon is portraying is that many people, from parents, to health advocates are very upset and even disturbed by this announcement. Congress’ approval rate has probably not dropped that drastically, but there is a large population who is not happy with this new legislation and may be losing approval for Congress. The cartoonist seems to agree with this point of view and is making a mockery of Congress by over exaggerating the decline in approval and actually having it jump off of the chart and smash into the ground.