A cartoon for Sunday's edition ...

I read that John McCain was recently greeted at an airport by a grand total of one reporter. Meanwhile, Barack Obama is cruising the globe with a network TV anchors attached to him like remoras on a whale shark. I mostly fault so-called TV journalists for this disturbing imbalance, but I'm seeing an awful lot of print publications running more Obama stories over McCain ones. The argument they would make is that Obama is a walking, talking news story because of his race, which is certainly true. It's wonderful that a black man will soon officially become a major-party candidate for president -- and one that stands a very good chance of winning in November. But however amazing the whole Obama saga is, there's still another major candidate in this election: McCain. Because we are human, journalists are incapable of being unbiased. But we are all taught that we should do our best to minimize the influence of bias by writing balanced stories. That same principle needs to apply to deciding news coverage, too.

Of course, this is all coming from a guy whose job is to draw biased and unbalanced cartoons every day!

I find it interesting that President Bush's reversal on a "timetable" -- albeit, by different name -- for withdrawal from Iraq hasn't sparked more criticism. He has steadfastly refused to set a "timetable," but now Iraqi officials are asking for one. The old line was that a "timetable" would give terrorists and insurgents incentive to wait it out until U.S. forces withdrew. Well, is a "time horizon" any different from a "timetable?" From where I sit, it seems to be semantics.

With average Americans already hurtling earthward because of rising inflation, falling home values, accumulating debt and nearly stagnant wages, what else could go wrong? Mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac needing a taxpayer bailout, that's what! The quasi-private Fannie in particular seems to have been run incredibly poorly the past decade, with its bigwigs racking up millions in bonuses despite being at the center of scandals.

You can read The Examiner's editorial on the subject here.

Redskins Coach Jim Zorn

Maryland Comptroller Peter Franchot

San Francisco tech hotshot Sanjit Biswas

This was a hard cartoon for me to draw, but I felt it had to be done. I've tackled this issue a couple of times before, as it's something that resonates with me -- especially so now that I'm a father. Here is the news story my cartoon references. This agency exists to safeguard the D.C. children who are most in need of help. Today we learned that the agency's director, Sharlynn Bobo, has resigned. I hate when I'm cynical, but I doubt the director's resignation will change the neglectful institutional culture that has contributed to more poor kids ending up in coffins.

Oh, you know how I love drawing comic book characters! I drew this cartoon for Friday's newspaper, as we're running an extra long editorial on Thursday. Be on the lookout for a local D.C. cartoon in Sunday's print edition -- or you can catch a preview of it on my blog after I've uploaded it.

I futzed around with the wording for this cartoon all day. It started out with Obama saying, "I don't understand why this cartoon is considered funny!" and the Average Joe guy saying, "Duh. It's a New Yorker cartoon." It didn't quite do it for me or anyone else I asked. The crux of the cartoon is that New Yorker cartoons often leave people scratching their heads trying to figure where the laugh is. Their cover on Obama isn't really funny or effective satire. That said, I would never say they shouldn't try to run covers like these. Obama needs to relax. If he's elected president, he'll likely see plenty of "offensive" and "tasteless" cartoons about him all over the place. The same for McCain. They may not like it, but it comes with the territory when you run for president.

I can't remember the last time I drew a cartoon about Darfur, but the latest news about the International Criminal Court weighing war crimes charges against Sudan's leader warranted this cartoon.

By the way, thanks to everyone who's given me encouragement with the caricatures! Even the humblest person should still feel good when someone offers a compliment.

Here are previews of the three caricatures for this Sunday:

D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty

Baltimore Mayor Sheila Dixon

San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom