Robert Ariail, despite appearances to the contrary, is actually a shy guy, who has trouble shrugging off criticism.
You’d think, being a satirist, that he’d have a tougher hide, but he really takes it to heart when people tear into his work.
But what really gets him, what really eat him up, is when the criticism is based in something he didn’t intend at all. Such is the case with the minor uproar over his Thursday cartoon. As he wrote on his new Web page:
Given the number of comments on this cartoon I thought it would be constructive to offer my own. My intent was not to imply that Obama is a muslim terrorist- though now that it’s been pointed out to me, I can see how some would reach that conclusion. Basically, I was playing on the name [sounds like bomb] and the possibility that his words could blow up his campaign. A number of comments implied I have it in for Sen. Obama and favor Sen. Clinton, yet my first take on this was to point out the irony of Clinton calling Obama an elitist- see previous day’s cartoon.
I told him that the kind of people who assume he’s the kind of person who would make Obama out to be a terrorist will never believe the truth — that he simply never thought of it, that the gag really was so simple as to be playing on the fact that he was committing political suicide, and "Obama" sounds like "bomber" — hence, "Suicide Obama." But he should state the truth anyway.
The awful thing is that once you think, "Oh, this is another of those Barack Hussein Obama things," it’s hard to see anything else in it. But before publication, Robert didn’t see it. Neither did I. The only discussion we had about it was when I questioned him as to whether the word balloon where he’s saying, "Uh, let me rephrase that…" added anything to the gag. Robert thought he needed to be saying something, and that having him say that emphasized that Obama didn’t really mean to sound all elitist and dismissive, and had been trying to correct that impression by explaining himself.
And now Robert’s having to explain himself. Ironic, huh? Of course, the Web being the way it is, nobody’s listening to him.
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Brad, having seen many of Mr. Arial’s previous works I know better than to think he meant ill with this one, but I’d say you go too far when you essentially suggest no one could legitimately believe this one was intended to be a smear job. There are plenty of folks out there who might have drawn a cartoon superficially similar to this one that was meant to portray exactly what these commenters suggest. Anyone who sees that stuff day after day could easily draw the wrong conclusion upon a first glance at this cartoon.
I’m a big Obama guy and was furious with the ABC debacle. My first impression of this cartoon was neither catching the name association with bomb nor the Hussein association. I can see both sides but having read 3 Arial books, I can’t imagine he was going the Muslim route.
Sorry your cartoon sort of bombed Mr. Arial, I like your work.
Absolutely, Wally — Robert said the same thing. Once it was pointed out to him, he immediately saw how they could see it that way.
It’s just not what he was thinking.
Even the best and brightest sometimes stumble over the foot that inexplicably inserts itself into that opening in the body through which food is ingested… witness Obama and the “bitter” remark. I’ve been an Ariail fan for years. A favorite piece depicts a “little” Earth with the word balloon: “War, injustice, famine, disease, poverty, ignorance, where on earth do we start?” A bigger Earth responds: “Start with the last one and work backwards.” As a fan and an Obama supporter, I think most followers of Ariail’s work wouldn’t even consider that he was deliberately portraying Obama as a terrorist. As for the rest, “ignorance” of his work and style may well be at fault.
Robert, you’re a great editorial cartoonist… maybe one of the best ever. You’ve inspired a lot of people, me included. Don’t let the critics get you down!
Obama’s so full of himself the slightest pin prick deflates the inflatable doll he’s blown himself up to be.
Real men don’t bowl 37s, nor cry foul at the mention of their middle names, but Obama did.
Now he’s embittered some of the public by calling them bitter and gone from master orator to jerk in a hearbeat.
So Ariail put the pin (and pen) to him. More power to Ariail’s penmanship.
Barak Obama brings it on himself, by close associations with, and worship of, radical Islam:
Malcolm X
Louis Farakan
Jeremiah Wright (“former” Muslim)
and a bunch of his friends and fellow parrisoners who have visited Mideast terrorists in Hamas and Libya.
Lee, why not admit you are a racist and use blatant racist remarks in lieu of these thinly veiled racist remarks.
Lee,
Are you regurgitating the “Obama is a closet Muslim smear” polemics purveyed by the racist neo-Kahanists and convicted terrorist Vince Vancier over at JTF? I’ve determined them to be the primary source for this incessant BS- NOT Hillary! You should know that Victor Vancier aka “Chaim ben Pesach” is a convicted terrorist who idolizes the notorious late Meir Kahane. Their organization has been stridently condemned by the ADL and Simon Wiesenthal Center, and the associated KACH party in Israel, as well as any derivative parties, have all been banned by the Israeli Knesset.
Many of the “facts” that have spread via emails and blogs about Obama et al can be directly traced to these vicious and unscrupulous hatemongers. They are responsible for the plethora of unreferenced skewed “quotes” taken from Obama’s book “The Audacity of Hope”. All of these grossly exaggerated, twisted, and intentionally misleading quotes have been fully analyzed and refuted by “McSweeny” on the Island Packet discussion board. Just google “McSweeny” “Obama” and “Cyberella” (A JTF sock puppet repsonsible for posting this garbage on boards across the Carolinas, and the Nation in general) and you will find them.
Furthermore, you’ve conveniently overlooked (as have many others) that Wright’s trip to Libya and Syria in 1984 was as part of an entourage with Jesse Jackson in which they secured the release of Bobby Goodman, who had been shot down over Lebanon on December 4, 1983. He was held for over a month, during which the US government made numerous attempts to free him.
U.S. President Ronald Reagan welcomed Goodman and Jackson at the White House and praised Jackson for his efforts. All of this was reported and the articles are posted online. Start with “Stanley, Alessandra. “An Officer and a Gentleman Comes Home”. Time Magazine, 16 Jan 1984.
I’ve previously had trouble posting URLs to Brad’s blog, so I trust you can use google to find them yourself.
Also note that this event occurred BEFORE we bombed Tripoli, which that came later on in 1986. At the time that Jackson and Wright traveled, we had placed sanctions on Libya, but there were no travel restrictions in place.
Next, the idea that Wright supports the “Hamas Terrorist manifesto” is also derived from JTF hate posts. Wright did not invite Hamas to publish; he merely reprinted a letter that appeared in the Los Angeles Times, as he has often published a wide variety of op-ed pieces on many issues, even posting pieces on opposite sides of a single issue.
Finally, the brouhaha over Obama’s middle name is curious to me. After all, if one were so assiduous as to spell out his middle name, why not add the abbreviation “Jr.” at the end? Apparently the crowd that is so busy hyperventilating over these scare tactics seem to think it is a crime for a son to be named for his father.
Now that I’ve said that, before you take me for an Obama campaign strategist, you should know I’m not. I just loathe people who lie. The same was true back in 200 for those who claimed that MCCain’s adopted daughter from Bangladesh was his own “…illegitimate black daughter”. I often wonder that if people here in SC hadn’t bought that kind of BS back then, where would we be right now.
Lee,
Are you regurgitating the “Obama is a closet Muslim smear” polemics purveyed by the racist neo-Kahanists and convicted terrorist Vince Vancier over at JTF? I’ve determined them to be the primary source for this incessant BS- NOT Hillary! You should know that Victor Vancier aka “Chaim ben Pesach” is a convicted terrorist who idolizes the notorious late Meir Kahane. Their organization has been stridently condemned by the ADL and Simon Wiesenthal Center, and the associated KACH party in Israel, as well as any derivative parties, have all been banned by the Israeli Knesset.
Many of the “facts” that have spread via emails and blogs about Obama et al can be directly traced to these vicious and unscrupulous hatemongers. They are responsible for the plethora of unreferenced skewed “quotes” taken from Obama’s book “The Audacity of Hope”. All of these grossly exaggerated, twisted, and intentionally misleading quotes have been fully analyzed and refuted by “McSweeny” on the Island Packet discussion board. Just google “McSweeny” “Obama” and “Cyberella” (A JTF sock puppet repsonsible for posting this garbage on boards across the Carolinas, and the Nation in general) and you will find them.
Furthermore, you’ve conveniently overlooked (as have many others) that Wright’s trip to Libya and Syria in 1984 was as part of an entourage with Jesse Jackson in which they secured the release of Bobby Goodman, who had been shot down over Lebanon on December 4, 1983. He was held for over a month, during which the US government made numerous attempts to free him.
U.S. President Ronald Reagan welcomed Goodman and Jackson at the White House and praised Jackson for his efforts. All of this was reported and the articles are posted online. Start with “Stanley, Alessandra. “An Officer and a Gentleman Comes Home”. Time Magazine, 16 Jan 1984.
I’ve previously had trouble posting URLs to Brad’s blog, so I trust you can use google to find them yourself.
Also note that this event occurred BEFORE we bombed Tripoli, which that came later on in 1986. At the time that Jackson and Wright traveled, we had placed sanctions on Libya, but there were no travel restrictions in place.
Next, the idea that Wright supports the “Hamas Terrorist manifesto” is also derived from JTF hate posts. Wright did not invite Hamas to publish; he merely reprinted a letter that appeared in the Los Angeles Times, as he has often published a wide variety of op-ed pieces on many issues, even posting pieces on opposite sides of a single issue.
Finally, the brouhaha over Obama’s middle name is curious to me. After all, if one were so assiduous as to spell out his middle name, why not add the abbreviation “Jr.” at the end? Apparently the crowd that is so busy hyperventilating over these scare tactics seem to think it is a crime for a son to be named for his father.
Now that I’ve said that, before you take me for an Obama campaign strategist, you should know I’m not. I just loathe people who lie. The same was true back in 200 for those who claimed that MCCain’s adopted daughter from Bangladesh was his own “…illegitimate black daughter”. I often wonder that if people here in SC hadn’t bought that kind of BS back then, where would we be right now.
JTF are a bunch of obnoxious lying racist pimple-faced scum.