Candidates Are Quick to Move to the Next Best State: New Hampshire

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15654769/ns/politics-political_cartoons/t/week-political-cartoons/

The GOP candidates spend several months trying desperately to promote their campaign and image by visiting states they know will help them advance in the race as a front runner for the GOP nomination. Iowa evidently begins the process with the caucus in January. For a year, Iowa receives massive media coverage right up until the caucus is over and then the candidates quickly make their way over to New Hampshire in order to promote their campaign. In Daryl Cagle's political cartoon, he shows how the media rapidly travels from one state to another, meaning the states become yesterday's news once the race is over.

In Cagle's cartoon, both Iowa and and New Hampshire stand on separate sides because, not only are they not adjacent physically, but they also differ in politics too. While the Iowa is a conservative state, New Hampshire tends to be full of liberals and is very democratic. Thus, the opposite ends represent "The Far Right" and "The Far Left". The media is literally running from one end to the other because, not only is it a race for the candidates, but it is also a race for the media. It is their job to make sure that they covering every part of this race and picking up as much information as possible. Some of the techniques that Cagle uses is Personification of the states. In the cartoon, the viewer can see that the state of Iowa has the expression of frustration because the media is no longer covering them. The state of New Hampshire on the other hand is satisfied with the media and is prepared for the immense amount of coverage they are about to receive. Cagle also uses Exaggeration, portraying how the news reporters and journalists can be extremely obnoxious and almost desperate to get to the next state.

Both techniques emphasize that the media is overwhelming and could very well be playing too big of a role in how the caucuses and primaries are conducted. Cagle seems to believe that even though media coverage is important, the states have to deal with too much chaos and uproar causing them to resent the media all together. This is a big issue for states like Iowa and New Hampshire and it places emphasis on the fact that no one has done anything about the problem. The candidates have not taken it upon themselves to equally visit every state which may be why voter turnout is so low. Cagle probably supports the fact that there's too much media coverage and the focus needs to be placed on different state other than the main ones. Even though there have been ideas proposed to change how the primaries and caucuses are conducted, currently they determined by two factors: the candidates and the over bearing media.