Analysis of Political Cartoon by Mike Likovich

The cartoonist for this is known as Mike Likovich. This cartoon describes a football referee who has gone on strike and subsequently replaced by one who has made some outrageous calls. This basically upends the team that is thought to be in a position to perform better than the first one (Green Bay) and thus giving points to the inferior team (Seahawks). The media and the pollsters had been publishing polls, writing articles, and writing words that indicated that Obama was a head of Romney but the situation turned out that on the head, Romney was the one who was a head or in the lead and was headed to winning the election. From the cartoon, the referees are symbolized by the referee shirts. The shirts also symbolize the pollsters or the media houses that make bad calls or who make wrong analysis of the political situation prior to election (Dewey, 112).There is an element of exaggeration as depicted by the cartoon whereby the referees are posed in a ludicrous or unnatural position such as balancing on one hand, straight up, and so on(Halloran, 98).This indicated how far they were willing to go ahead to make a call. In addition, the red lump in the cartoons with the word “Mitt” written on them were designed to make it look as though Romney’s head had vanished. This further alluded to a bias against Romney even though he managed to score a goal. This involves the aspect of labeling, which involves cartoonists using specific elements to signify specific importance or relevance. Labeling also points out what the cartoonist wishes or wants the audience to understand (Halloran,108). Words contained in the cartoon also portray the message that the cartoonist wishes to pass to the audience. From the cartoon above, the cartoonist has used images of people putting on referee clothes, with some people standing in upside-down positions while others are on upright positions, so as to pass a specific message.

It was obvious that the GOP was not able to hire its own referees but the cartoonist also alluded to the fact that they had the money to “buy the game” through paying off the pollsters. As much as the election is not a sport in itself, the cartoon has depicted it such that it looks like a spectator sport. This is a case of analogy since it involves the comparison of two things or activities that are not alike (election and sport). This concept involves a situation whereby a complex issue is related to a more familiar idea, concept, or activity (Kahn, et al., 92). For example, most people are familiar with or are interested in sports much more compared to election. Therefore analogy of sport is used to describe the political situation so as to create more interest and fun(Kahn, et al., 82). This also helps the audience understand better the kind of values or message the cartoonist is trying to pass across. The overall message contained in the cartoon was that the Republicans were desperate and would try anything or do anything within their reach to win the election.