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This Awful Editorial Cartoon Won a Pulitzer Prize Today

Mike Riggs | 4.16.2012 4:19 PM

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"Awarded to Matt Wuerker of POLITICO for his consistently fresh, funny cartoons, especially memorable for lampooning the partisan conflict that engulfed Washington."

See the rest of Wuerker's submissions (spoiler: they all suck) here. 

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Mike Riggs is a contributing editor at Reason.

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  1. VG Zaytsev   13 years ago

    It makes sense once you realize that Obama wants to hook the hose up to a gas pump, not a water main.

  2. Old Bull Lee   13 years ago

    The fire hydrant really does show you how liberals see tax revenue.

  3. SugarFree   13 years ago

    See the rest of Wuerker's submissions (spoiler: they all suck) here.

    You magnificent bastard.

    1. Scruffy Nerfherder   13 years ago

      Tom Friedmanesque

  4. kinnath   13 years ago

    Lots on labels on stuff -- guys got a future on Friday Funnies.

  5. A Serious Man   13 years ago

    Like water, tax revenue is essentially endless because the productive members of society won't miss it, they just swim idly in giant swimming pools of gold like Scrooge McDuck.

    1. aix42   13 years ago

      I recall a mention of what would happen if someone actually tried to dive into a pool of gold coins or similar....

      But yeah, money is just sittin there waiting to be put to productive use by the gov.

  6. Translucent Chum   13 years ago

    Hey, it's funny. Tea bag joke too!

    1. Translucent Chum   13 years ago

      That was in sarcastic font.

  7. Lucy Steigerwald   13 years ago

    Oh my God, the descriptor makes it even funnier.

    I cannot work with this at the top of the page, it's too hilarious.

    Please, beloved commenters, click through at least to get to the Romney/Obama strip poker comic. There's a lot of tension in their gaze and I am going to pretend that's secretly libertarian commentary.

    1. Episiarch   13 years ago

      That was brutal, Lucy. I won't soon forget this.

    2. Scruffy Nerfherder   13 years ago

      Is that Romney? I figured that was the Boehner tan. Needs more tears though.

      1. SugarFree   13 years ago

        You are correct. That's Boehner. The Politico-level conception of him is always either crying or with bedroom eyes. To contrast him with the sexless dessicated harpy Pelosi, I imagine.

        LUCY FAIL

        1. Lucy Steigerwald   13 years ago

          SORRY. I went blind soon after looking at the "comics."

          1. SugarFree   13 years ago

            It is a very wise defensive adaptation you have evolved considering your line of work.

  8. SugarFree   13 years ago

    Needs moar labels.

    Of course, I guess this cartoon is from before the "deny there is inflation" talking points memo went out.

  9. Tim   13 years ago

    Award winning crap.

  10. Pound. Head. On. Desk.   13 years ago

    Why can't anyone see the only solution to having the deficit go from one dollar in three to one dollar in two on steady tax receipts is to increase receipts? Who would think it's spending that's out of control?

    1. Scruffy Nerfherder   13 years ago

      Stop hating the children

  11. SugarFree   13 years ago

    The economy is a sea of blood.

    Pearls sufficiently clutched yet?

  12. Fist of Etiquette   13 years ago

    Geithner is such a pyro.

  13. Scruffy Nerfherder   13 years ago

    I actually thought this one was decent

    1. SugarFree   13 years ago

      Judging by the rest of them, I can only assume he passed out from hysteria that morning and an intern filled in.

    2. kinnath   13 years ago

      Blind Pig...Acorns

      1. Doctor Whom   13 years ago

        Stopped clock.

  14. The Other Kevin   13 years ago

    If this guy is actually making a living and winning awards, I think it's time for me to make a second attempt at an art career.

  15. Res Publica Americana   13 years ago

    Shitty cartoon for progressives fucking up a superpower = awesome Pulitzer-deserving material.

    If,say, Paul Krugman shits in a bag, will the bag and its contents sell for a few million in this crowd?

    1. Scruffy Nerfherder   13 years ago

      It will after we get done implementing his economic policies.

      1. scareduck   13 years ago

        ^^^ WIN ^^^

  16. Translucent Chum   13 years ago

    They all look like something Brick Tamland would doodle.

  17. Pain   13 years ago

    Proving once and for all how worthless editorial cartooning is.

    PA pretty much sums up my feelings.

  18. Restoras   13 years ago

    Riggs, your spoiler was completely insufficient for the suckage beyond the link. I'm going to take that 11 minutes of life back out of your hide.

  19. Paul.   13 years ago

    You notice how the 'spending cuts' fireman's stream of water is really weak and lackluster, and not even spraying on the fire?

    1. Paul.   13 years ago

      What's that 'Eye of Suaron' thing on Obama's helmet?

  20. Apple   13 years ago

    If I were in the 1%, I'd buy a bigger table.

  21. Paul.   13 years ago

    I like this one.

    It shows the one-party communist-ruled nation of China in complete agreement with eachother.

    Get it?

  22. Paul.   13 years ago

    This one is factually incorrect. The teacher is not a job creator, he's a worker creator. Major difference.

    1. Doctor Whom   13 years ago

      Where I grew up, the teachers were job creators. Jobs in the state prison system count as jobs, do they not?

  23. Abdul   13 years ago

    The pulitzer award for political cartoons always reminds me that Joe Pulitzer was blind at the end of his life.

    Now I know why he gouged his own eyes out.

  24. Killazontherun   13 years ago

    Why are the arsonist dressed like firemen?

    1. Paul.   13 years ago

      Because you'd call the cops on a bunch of guys running around your house in Arsonist uniforms.

      1. Killazontherun   13 years ago

        I would have recognized them in a line up either way.

        1. Paul.   13 years ago

          Racist.

          1. Killazontherun   13 years ago

            Thanks. I keep telling people that but they keep giving me the benefit of the doubt.

  25. Dick Fitzwell   13 years ago

    Probably a Perrier hydrant, to boot.

  26. Mr. FIFY   13 years ago

    Team Bluetards say:

    "It's not about reducing the deficit! It's about faaaaaaairness!!!one!!e1eventy!!!!!!!!"

    Fucking liberals. How do they work?

  27. Tim Cavanaugh   13 years ago

    Pulitzer tip: If you draw a soldier, he should have a callout that reads "ARMY."

    1. grylliade   13 years ago

      Holy crap, that dude in olive green wearing a helmet and carrying a rifle was a soldier?!?

  28. rho   13 years ago

    You know how every garage band was once a bad copy of Led Zeppelin or the Ramones or Nirvana?

    Editorial cartoonists still think they're the next Thomas Nast.

  29. Knutsack   13 years ago

    Seriously? Spending Cuts? There should be NOTHING coming out of that hose.

    Does anyone besides the winner and the organization for which the winner works take this seriously?

  30. IceTrey   13 years ago

    This cartoon is stupid because, you don't directly hook up a hose to a fire hydrant. The hose from the hydrant runs to the truck then the water is distributed from there. Unless he was trying to make the point that taxes are as out of control as that hose would be.

    1. Copernicus   13 years ago

      I think you've over analyzed this cartoon, but since you started it:

      1. You can hook up a hose directly to a fire hydrant, yes it's not SOP but for the cartoon it makes sense because... (see point 2)

      2. The cartoonist is obviously implying that the motherlode solution lies in the hydrant which represents virtually unlimited water vs. the small amount held in the truck labeled "spending cuts". The cartoonist is wrong of course, but given his premise, the use of the hydrant makes sense.

      3. A firefighting hose attached directly to a hydrant would not be "out of control". Hydrants are pressurized around 30-60psi. Fire trucks boost the pressure to 80-150psi depending on the size (diameter) of the firefighting line. A firefighting hose from a truck would be much more likely to be "out of control".

  31. Somalian Road Corporation   13 years ago

    Christ, every single one of these is absolutely terrible.

  32. The Derider   13 years ago

    Types of political cartoons that Mike Riggs thinks should win pulitzers.

    A) Those supporting libertarian views.
    B) ...

    Is there some other lens that you're viewing this through?

    1. Killazontherun   13 years ago

      You're kind of stupid.

      1. Mr. FIFY   13 years ago

        Don't be so kind to it, Killaz.

    2. Warty   13 years ago

      PWNDPWNDPWNDPWNDPWNDPWNDPWND

      Fuck, we got PWND bad there.

  33. ZingoSooo   13 years ago

    Whoa, so why didnt I think of that?

    http://www.Gettin-Privacy.tk

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