Bill, Hillary, and the Kennedys

I found this political cartoon to be effective for its overall direct message and its more subtle barbs at both Hillary and Bill Clinton following the Obama endorsement from Ted Kennedy. The cartoon depicts Hillary and Bill Clinton watching a television with John F. Kennedy’s image shown underneath an “Obama ‘08” logo. Kennedy is saying that he approved the previous message given by the Obama ad. The cartoon is timely as it is making political commentary concerning the recent Ted Kennedy endorsement of Barack Obama. The cartoon is effective because of how it demonstrates the significance of the Ted Kennedy endorsement and the commentary it makes about the Bill and Hillary Clinton relationship, both of which have become central issues to the Democratic Party’s nomination process in 2008.

The argument being laid out by cartoonist Jack Ohman, is that the Kennedy endorsement of Obama will be extraordinarily effective and that this time around there is little Bill Clinton can do to offset the consequences. The cartoon very blatantly references the controversial role that Bill Clinton has assumed following Barack Obama’s early caucus victory in Iowa. Following Hillary Clinton’s disappointing third place finish in the state, Bill Clinton began going on the offensive against Obama, targeting the senator’s record and experience, and more controversially bringing Obama’s race to the forefront of the political debate. After Hillary’s surprising victory in New Hampshire, Bill continued to go after Obama before the South Carolina primary. During his frequent attacks on Obama, Bill seemingly downplayed the importance of the South Carolina primary due to its very large number of African-American voters, voters who greatly favor Obama over Clinton. Following Obama’s landslide victory, Bill related Obama’s victory to that of Jessie Jackson 20 years earlier, seemingly in an effort to again diminish the significance of the win. In the cartoon presented here, Ohman is making reference to this sequence of events through Hillary Clinton as she turns to her husband and says, “Spin that…” The not so subtle implication here is that Bill Clinton has been spinning recent events to favor his wife and is directly referencing the former President’s new role in the campaign as an ‘attack dog’ for his wife. In this regard the cartoon works as a subtle attack at Bill Clinton.

The cartoon is also effective in its ability to really highlight the cartoonist’s perceived significance of the Ted Kennedy endorsement. During Ted Kennedy’s endorsement speech at an event on January 28, Kennedy did indeed raise the name of his brother John F. Kennedy in an analogy to Barack Obama’s campaign. Adding to this analogy is the endorsement from Caroline Kennedy, who directly compared Barack Obama to her father. The message from the political cartoon here is that the now frequent comparisons to John F. Kennedy have acted to provide a sort of endorsement by JFK from beyond the grave. And when the relatives of President Kennedy act to bestow the mantle of the Kennedy legacy onto someone, how can you possibly combat that as a political opponent? The cartoon is also making fun of the sheer absurdity of a dead former president endorsing a candidate and how that really is not fair to the Clintons. Based on this cartoon it is clear that the illustrator feels that the Kennedy endorsements of Obama will be effective because of the images they conjure up in voters and the impossibility of an effective rebuttal from Hillary Clinton.

Visually, Ohman goes out of his way to portray Hillary as angry and seemingly pessimistic while Bill is drawn to appear shocked and bewildered. This again can be interpreted as a kind of parody of the Bill and Hillary relationship, in this circumstance the political relationship where Hillary is seen as the more cynical realist, and Bill is shown to be more of the eager political opportunist.

The cartoon is directed at voters generally, especially Americans who have been following the presidential race and are aware of current events, more specifically about the role of Bill Clinton in the campaign. And overall, the cartoon is meant to maybe ridicule the relationship that the Clintons have and possibly more seriously critique the role that Bill Clinton has played recently.