Reviewing the Comics Section of the Wall Street Journal – What, You Thought There Were No Comics in the WSJ?

There Are, It’s Called the Editorial and Opinion Pages

The two leading newspapers in the United States, the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal do not have a formal comics section.  The NYT does have Doonesbury and editorial cartoons in its online version, but the Wall Street Journal does not have any major graphic cartoons in either its print edition or its online edition.  But this does not mean it does not have a hilarious section.

The April 12^th edition of the WSJ is a great example of laugh out loud funnies.  First up we have that Conservative laugh a minute guy, Fred Barnes whose piece is entitled

We Still Haven’t Seen Romney’s A-Game

Really, that’s the title.  Mr. Barnes’s position is that Mr. Romney needs to pay more attention to Conservatives to win in November.  For example he complains that Mr. Romney’s initial tax plan did not do anything for the wealthy

His first tax plan provided nothing for the rich because, he said, they were doing fine

And his advice to Mr. Romney is that

One way to deal with his affluence is to joke about it.

And that he should stress how his grandfather was not rich

 he's comfortable when he talks about his family's rags to riches story, as he did in his victory speech after the Illinois primary in March. So more of that is called for.

which seems a great strategy if his grandfather were running for President.

Next up we have Karl Rove, Mr. Bush’s former campaign brain who is essentially just given a Republican political advertisement column in the WSJ.  Mr. Rove this week is aghast the Mr. Obama will, in Mr. Rove’s words ‘take the low road’ in the campaign. 

No honest differences are possible with Mr. Obama. He will impugn the motives of any who disagree with him. As he told the AP, his opponents want to "let businesses pollute more and treat workers and consumers with impunity." His agenda "isn't a partisan feeling . . . [it]isn't a Democratic or Republican idea. It's patriotism." To disagree with him is unpatriotic. That's to be expected from Republicans, whom Mr. Obama says stand for "thinly veiled social Darwinism . . . [that is] antithetical to our entire history."

Although to be fair if anyone knows about taking the ‘low road’ in a campaign it is Mr. Rove.  See in his world any criticism of Republicans is unfair while his side gets to castigate the President as a foreign born Muslim who wants to impose socialism on the United States.

Two people whom no one has heard of write an opinion piece titled

                        A Stable Afghanistan is Still Possible

whose theme is that if we just stay there long enough we can train the Afghan army to control the country.  Gosh where have heard that before.  One suspects these same authors still lament the fact that the U. S. left Vietnam instead of occupying the country for 30 years.

Daniel Henninger is in the Karl Rove mode when he complains of Democratic criticism of Paul Ryan’s budget plan.  In a hilarious piece he quotes Ryan’s strong belief to help poor

"Those principles are very, very important, and the preferential option for the poor, which is one of the primary tenets of Catholic social teaching, means don't keep people poor, don't make people dependent on government so that they stay stuck at their station in life. Help people get out of poverty out onto a life of independence."

Of course this completely forgets that the Ryan plan would obliterate almost all government programs to help low income people become self sufficient and generate higher incomes.

 If anyone ever wondered how ridiculous Conservative commentary could be this should surely set the bar.  Okay, this is probably not quite as funny if you are a poor family that needs government assistance for health care, education and basic living items like food and energy.  But don’t worry folks, after Mr. Ryan’s budget plan takes all that away from you things will be fine.