Best Editorial Cartoons of the Year, 1998

Rating:
Summary: You can never have too many cartoons ridiculing Clinton
Review: I have long assumed that the term "nasty" came from the famous cartoons that Thomas Nast did of Boss Tweed, Tammany Hall, and other political targets of the mid-19th century. If that is not the case, then circle take the square. But clearly there is nothing like a good political scandal to get the creative juices flowing for editorial cartoons, which is exactly what you find in the opening sections of "Best Editorial Cartoons of the Year, 1998." During the previous year we learned that the Clinton administration had granted access to the president in exchange for campaign donations, some of whom got overnight stays in the Lincoln bedroom, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Paula Jones's sexual harassment suit against Clinton could proceed while the president was still in office, and Attorney General Janet Reno was being urged to appoint an independent counsel to investigate telephone calls Clinton and Vice-President Al Gore made from the White House to raise funds. Questions about Hillary Clinton's involvement with what was being called the Whitewater scandal were lost in all the fun. Not since Watergate did cartoons have this much fun pillorying the President of the United States.

Still, the most memorable cartoons in this collection of over 400 editorial cartoons by more than 160 cartoonists from the United States and Canada are those dealing with the death of Mother Teresa. Sometimes it is nice to remember that such drawings can provoke higher emotions than outrage and disdain. Of course, this was the same year that Princess Diana, Jimmy Stewart, Red Skelton, John Denver, and Jacques Cousteau passed away as well. At the other extreme there are five pages of cartoons represent Saddam Hussein's refusal to allow American weapons inspectors access to Iraqi facilities to search for weapons of mass destruction. Other events that we might as well laugh at because we are not going to forget them include O.J. Simpson's Bruno Magli shoes that resulted in the civil verdict against him and Mike Tyson biting off part of Evander Holyfield's ear in a title fight. Otherwise the commonplaces of Congress, the IRS, education, crime, the environment and that stupid economy provide constant fodder for the cartoonists.

Rating:
Summary: You can never have too many cartoons ridiculing Clinton
Review: I have long assumed that the term "nasty" came from the famous cartoons that Thomas Nast did of Boss Tweed, Tammany Hall, and other political targets of the mid-19th century. If that is not the case, then circle take the square. But clearly there is nothing like a good political scandal to get the creative juices flowing for editorial cartoons, which is exactly what you find in the opening sections of "Best Editorial Cartoons of the Year, 1998." During the previous year we learned that the Clinton administration had granted access to the president in exchange for campaign donations, some of whom got overnight stays in the Lincoln bedroom, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Paula Jones's sexual harassment suit against Clinton could proceed while the president was still in office, and Attorney General Janet Reno was being urged to appoint an independent counsel to investigate telephone calls Clinton and Vice-President Al Gore made from the White House to raise funds. Questions about Hillary Clinton's involvement with what was being called the Whitewater scandal were lost in all the fun. Not since Watergate did cartoons have this much fun pillorying the President of the United States.

Still, the most memorable cartoons in this collection of over 400 editorial cartoons by more than 160 cartoonists from the United States and Canada are those dealing with the death of Mother Teresa. Sometimes it is nice to remember that such drawings can provoke higher emotions than outrage and disdain. Of course, this was the same year that Princess Diana, Jimmy Stewart, Red Skelton, John Denver, and Jacques Cousteau passed away as well. At the other extreme there are five pages of cartoons represent Saddam Hussein's refusal to allow American weapons inspectors access to Iraqi facilities to search for weapons of mass destruction. Other events that we might as well laugh at because we are not going to forget them include O.J. Simpson's Bruno Magli shoes that resulted in the civil verdict against him and Mike Tyson biting off part of Evander Holyfield's ear in a title fight. Otherwise the commonplaces of Congress, the IRS, education, crime, the environment and that stupid economy provide constant fodder for the cartoonists.