Mad #495 (John Ficarra) - Election 2008 Issue - November 2008

The editors devoted 18 pages to politics and the coming election in this issue.  Democratic candidate Barack Obama was barely mentioned but the disastrous campaign of John McCain was front and center.  1. Artist Sam Sisco drew McCain as the "... powerful, wrinkly leader ..." in The Fundalini Pages.  2. Artist Paul Coker drew the senator as one of the "... politicians who cut our soldiers' combat pay, cut their furloughs, and cut their insurance and health benefits, and then run for reelection as gung-ho patriots" in Desmond Devlin's "Mad's Updated Glossary to the War on Terror".  3. Devlin also featured McCain in "Mad Deconstructs TV Talk Shows".  4.  Artist Scott Bricher illustrated the previously-unknown biography of McCain in "A Look Back at the Historical Career of John McCain".  And, 5. McCain is skewered again for "Not Vetting Sarah Palin" in the Mad Political Poster. 

Writer Devlin had four credits in the issue including the best and worst articles.  His "The Dork Knight" movie parody with great drawings by Tom Richmond was the highlight of the issue.  However, his brutal (and unfunny) attack on Keith Olbermann ("Mad Deconstructs TV Talk Shows - This Month: Countdown with Keith Olbermann") was certainly the low point.  As a viewer of Countdown, I found Olbermann's reporting to be accurate and justified considering the overwhelming barrage of right-wing propaganda that dominated mainstream media at the time.  During the Bush Administration, it seemed that "conservatives" owned the media and used it to perpetuate their lies and distortions to solidify political control.  Several left-wing celebrities (Al Franken, Janeane Garofalo et al.) took time away from their higher-paying careers to counter the onslaught of right-wing talking points.  Olbermann was one of the heroes who took heat for "being like them" although the truth was almost always on his side.  [JAM 12/17/2014]

Departments:
Random Acts of Mindless - The Fundalini Pages
Don't Wayne on My Parade - The Dork Knight
Lexicon-Job - Mad's Updated Glossary to the War on Terror
Serge-In General - A Mad Look at Fortune Tellers
Campaignin' the Ass - "Alfred E. Neuman for President" Poster
Chat 'N the Stat - Mad Deconstructs TV Talk Shows: Countdown with Keith Olbermann
Antique Slideshow - A Look Back at the Historical Career of John McCain
Angster's Paradise - Monroe and ... Domestic Terror
Why So Sirius? - What if the Joker Became President of a Satellite Radio Company?  [fake department]
Pen And Stink - The Mad Strip Club
In Veep Trouble - "Not Vetting Sarah Palin"
The Apes of Wrath - When Monkeys Go Bad
Joke And Dagger - Spy vs. Spy vs. Spy
Electoral College Prep - When High School Elections are Run Like Presidential Elections

Fold-In - TMZ (not WALL-E)