Matt Buck's Hack Cartoons

This is one in a long series of posts which tend to crop up at times during which political people are engaged in building their public profiles. I imagine the New Yorker will be just delighted with the semi-hysterical response their mgazine cover which features both Othe Obama's in mildly satirical poses, has got.

The would-be president, who likes to be compared to JFK - John Kennedy - won't be too unhappy either. Why? Because it allows him to define what he clearly isn't. And he is doing this early, well ahead of the John MCCain's Republican attack dogs of the fall.

Clip from Channel 4 News

Matt Buck’s animated drawings

I lived in a America for a while when I was younger and I have had a serious interest in how the place is run ever since. My time there coincided with Bill Clinton's attempts to become President of the United States.

It was an real education for me in how elections and the selling of any candidate are undertaken. The positioning of Clinton's campaign about George Bush senior, the incumbent president of the time, was wonderfully accurate, and of course, highly successful. The Clinton campaign successfully negated Bush's trump card of 'experience' and incumbency by pointing up his 'cold' personality and inability to appear to listen to people convincingly. As this famous clip shows, Bush was certainly not naturally chatty or charming in his dealings in the media or people. This clip really highlighted it, as he completely failed to hear or connect with the question the lady asked. Stick with the film and then watch how Clinton deals with it. Particularly watch the body language he deploys as he talks and listens. I imagine Barack Obama's team have been watching a lot of these old clips too because they appear to be pulling off a similar trick in projecting the youthful and people-oriented Obama against against the clever but stumbling and cold Hillary Clinton now.

The great cartoonist Steve Brodner has an interesting interpretation of what is happening to Hillary right now, right here too - all courtesy of The New Yorker.

Matt Buck’s animated drawings