I’ve mentioned before that Gorrell will often (about half the time) make a cartoon that doesn’t reference any actual news item, any actual story, and will instead just reiterate his ‘I don’t like Obama’ stance. I’m thinking of calling it The Gorrell Question: could this cartoon have been released six months prior to or six months later than its actual release and retain its full impact (whatever that may be)? If the answer is ‘Yes,’ then it’s a Bad Cartoon. Editorialists are supposed to comment on the news of the day. There is supposed to be a timely quality to them.

Case in point, this cartoon. Does Gorrell refer to any recent headlines or published studies about the current state of the economy? No. He just draws Obama holding a sheet with the typical downward barline (a lazy cliche among lazy cliches) to indicate the economy is not doing well (though the sheet is titled ‘Economic policy,’ so maybe it’s to say that Obama’s policies have been taking some sort of nosedive).

“The economy is bad!” Gorrell says, feeling no need to back up his claim, no need to quantify or specify exactly how the economy is doing bad. Is it about unemployment? Wage stagnation? The growth of small businesses? What?

This is one reason (out of many) why I now declare Bob Gorrell to be The Shittiest Editorial Cartoonist in All the Land (previous title holders are Wayne Stayskal and Ken Catalino). It’s not a question of his views or his politics, it’s that he is so fucking lazy, both as a cartoonist and as an editorialist. He clearly has no love (or even fondness) for his job, so the question is raised: why does he bother?