I regularly visit a lot of progressive websites, and suddenly LOTS of them are saying how cool Obama because he's young and black, and how repulsive McCain is because he's old and white. (Yeah, yeah, they're just joking... isn't that Ann Coulter's defense?)

Sorry, but that's not the way to win the votes of old white people, votes that Obama will need in November. I'm a loyal Democrat myself, but plenty of folks out there are just angry enough -- or "cranky" -- to withhold their support from a party they feel has disrespected them.

Best cartoon so far this year.

Reader: I regularly visit a lot of progressive websites, and suddenly LOTS of them are saying how cool Obama because he's young and black, and how repulsive McCain is because he's old and white.

It's not: young + black = cool, old + white = repulsive

It's: young + black + cool = Obama, old + white + repulsive = McCain

~

With help from various cultural clichés:

YBR = Michael Vick

YWC = Eminem

YWR = Paris Hilton

OBC = Aretha Franklin

OBR = Robert Mugabe

OWC = Reader!

Even though I suspect some people won't really understand the connections.

I mean as a human being...just a real awful person.

You know I heard he collaborated with his captors in vietnam, tradded his tiger cage for a bed with silk sheets at the cost of some information that lead to the deaths of American Service men on the front lines.

That's what the Bush campaign told me back in 2000 and I don't see any reason to doubt it now.

But yeah, a real twerp that one. Beedie eyes, high pitched almost girly voice, certainly a villian from central casting if I ever saw one.

Oh yeah, and he's a pandering war monger with no economic sense by his own admission, just incase you thought it was all about personality.

Hey, let's get current and topical, as in Clint Eastwood versus Spike Lee ... now there's a preview of the election campaign!

Except for, you know, Chico not being black.

That old guy was plenty cranky, though.

Old ass useless neurotic Wasp and SASSY big black woman with all the wisdom in the world.

Certainly seemed subdued in this cartoon......must have been on a new calming med......

and Robert Culp.

For a while now, I've been looking at McCain, wistfully thinking about how much he reminds me of Bob Dole. God, I hope he goes down with a solid thud.

What is Ruben getting at in this strip? It is quite freeform, obviously intended to make you think twice. The last panel has Bill Clinton versus Bob Dole. If you hadn't noticed, both of them are white. "The First Black President" referred to the way Bill was treated during the Whitewater investigation.

This strip is not so much about black versus white, it's about taking sides when it comes to progression or regression.

Do you think it's OK to get fingered by your spiteful neighbor in Afghanistan, or have a similar name to someone else who's on a watch-list, then spend six years in prison being tortured with no-one allowed to ask whether you deserve to be there or not, in the name of "keeping us safe"? This could happen to your brother-in-law. It's not funny.

If you think that's cool, then vote for McCain. He's sure to keep you safe! If you think screwing over half the world for no reason makes you safer.

This fight has been going on for decades. Obama is on the right side, like Bill Clinton was.