How East views West

While stateside scribblers were throwing the book at Sarah Palin, how did our Far Eastern counterparts present our president? Singapore’s Heng used a hoop metaphor for his sideline line drawing of the disarmed globe-trotter in chief. (Watch out, though -- Barack’s a lefty, remember?) China Daily’s Luojie treated Obama as a sweet-talking, sweet-hawking street huckster, while Guangzhou’s Jianping Fan served up kinder and gentler pie-in-the-sky. Of course, these are only the sanitized, officially approved cartoons. A fearlessly independent press like ours would’ve tackled weightier stuff . . . like Sarahpalooza.

-- Joel Pett

Joel Pett is the Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist for the Lexington Herald-Leader in Kentucky. His work also appears in USA Today.