"Waterboard Obama"

This nifty little sticker was on the Sacramento County GOP website until early last week. The first sentence is clever, I'll concede that point. It doesn't make too much sense, but I can see the humor. Waterboard, however, is a step too far. Joking about waterboarding is disturbing, in my mind, at least.
But, to prove that things don't have to involve torture to be disturbing, I shall include this gem:



This is another piece of classy, timeless piece of GOP humor. The Obama buck addresses the question: "If elected, what bill would he be on?????" The answer: "Food Stamps, what else!" Now, surround the half African American Democratic nominee with ribs, fried chicken, watermelon, and koolaid and watch the laughs and support roll in - or, feign ignorance and claim that "It was just food to me. It didn't mean anything else." when you are accused of making a racist joke.

Since our discussion is centered around comedy this week, I have to wonder: where does one draw the line? Certainly politicians have been lambasted over tasteless jokes. One only needs to think of when McCain said "Bomb bomb bomb bomb bomb Iran" or when John Kerry's punchline was "stuck in Iraq."

I'm sure that the both the aforementioned graphics were considered comedic by some, as were the ill-fated McCain and Kerry comments. But, for all involved, these jokes caused much more trouble than anything else. At this late state in the campaign, it is clear that both candidates are trying not to mess up - saying something outrageous, whether because of a failed joke or a misspoken phrase, could be disastrous for either candidate. Laying low and not giving the media or their opponent fodder is the best plan of attack with 16 days left to go.