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THE BRIDGE TO NOWHERE

“There’s just something about Sarah Palin that upsets me. Sometimes you
can’t argue with a stupid person. It’s like a toy super villain absorbing your
firepower—you point out their mistakes and it makes them stronger.”

–BARRY BLITT

When John McCain introduced his running mate, Alaska governor Sarah Palin, at the Re-
publican Convention, she crowed: “I told Congress, ‘Thanks but no thanks,’ on that bridge
to nowhere.” It quickly came to light that Palin had actually once been a leading proponent
of the $223 million bridge to an island with. . . fifty inhabitants. Art Spiegelman submitted
his own vision of the bridge (below, right). Palin quickly grabbed all the headlines, and many
artists grabbed their pens. John Cuneo sent in “Palin’s cheat sheet” (opposite) while Barry Blitt
drew McCain as Palin’s puppet (below, top left). Peter de Sève sent in what he saw as McCain’s
version of Obama’s slogan (right). Meanwhile, a Republican political consultant denounced the
cover of Newsweek, a tight close-up of the former beauty queen (below, bottom left). “It’s a clear
slap in the face at Sarah Palin,” she said on Fox News, “Why? Because it’s unretouched.”