That is one superior cartoon, and I assume you can name the trio of cartoonish characters left to right. The "nonsense 24/7" is especially cute.
Economist editorial lamenting the state of the Right.
First the ambivalence on Obama:
Mr Obama deserves to be pegged back. This newspaper supported him in 2008 and backed his disappointing-but-necessary health-care plan. But he has done little to fix the deficit, shown a zeal for big government and all too often given the impression that capitalism is something unpleasant he found on the sole of his sneaker. America desperately needs a strong opposition. So it is sad to report that the American right is in a mess: fratricidal, increasingly extreme on many issues and woefully short of ideas, let alone solutions.
Fair enough. Now the plea:
This matters far beyond America’s shores. For most of the past half-century, conservative America has been a wellspring of new ideas—especially about slimming government. At a time when redesigning the state is a priority around the world, the right’s dysfunctionality is especially unfortunate.
I couldn't agree more. The progressivism, just like at the beginning of the 19th century, is more likely to arise from the GOP than from the Dems.
And yet:
The Republicans at the moment are less a party than an ongoing civil war (with, from a centrist point of view, the wrong side usually winning). There is a dwindling band of moderate Republicans who understand that they have to work with the Democrats in the interests of America. There is the old intolerant, gun-toting, immigrant-bashing, mainly southern right which sees any form of co-operation as treachery, even blasphemy. And muddying the whole picture is the tea-party movement, a tax revolt whose activists (some clever, some dotty, all angry) seem to loathe Bush-era free-spending Republicans as much as they hate Democrats. Egged on by a hysterical blogosphere and the ravings of Fox News blowhards, the Republican Party has turned upon itself.
Some say this is the vigorous debate begun. I--and The Economist--lament the lack of rising stars worthy of the designation.
Ah well, we can only hope that the saviors will emerge from obscurity, replacing the current American "idols."