The Cartoon

Scott Hardie | February 22, 2009
The infamous chimp cartoon seems to be like the young woman / old woman optical illusion, inspiring widely different interpretations of the same image. The first time I looked at it, yeah, it seemed pretty obvious that the chimp was Obama, and I could imagine no other purpose than to portray the first black president as a monkey. Then I looked again hours later, and I saw what the artist intended, a lame joke about chimps in Congress passing ridiculous legislation like the stimulus bill. It's not very funny, but it's not exactly offensive. What do you see?

If you are even a little perturbed by the cartoon, I'm also curious: If there were no black leaders like the NAACP and Al Sharpton speaking out about this cartoon, would you be as bothered by it? Ask me in private sometime why I wondered.

Tony Peters | February 22, 2009
I saw congress....But then I have always seen Sharpton as a racist ambulance chaser

Amy Austin | February 22, 2009
I just didn't find it all that funny. Period. Chimp = Obama... total afterthought. Having that as a possible inference just makes it even less funny... that's all.