Rhetorical Triangle and Appeals in Political Cartoon of Palin

The message of this political cartoon is how stupid Sarah Palin is. Or, more politely, how she has no idea what she is talking about. The author of this message is the illustrator of the cartoon while the audience is the people who read this cartoon. The context is during the presidential election race when Palin was running for election. During the election, Palin made some questioning comments about different things. After making these comments, the Republican party, represented by the elephant, knows they wont win is she elected in the primaries. The cartoon, then, is poking fun at Palin and her comments, including the fact her own party knows she isn't the brightest. The author of this cartoon uses the text inside the quote made by Palin, although fake, to evoke laughter and understanding from the audience. The emotional appeal, pathos, derives from the fact the audience understands how wrong she is when she says the things she does in the quote, its comical. However, to first find it funny the audience must have an understanding and brief knowledge about the history of the world. The audience also needs to have a little information about Palin's past in order to understand why this sort of thing would be coming out of her mouth. In this way, the author uses the text to appeal the audiences understanding of the earth and Palin which then appeals to their emotions making them laugh at the cartoon. From this we can see the goal of the rhetoric, or cartoon, was to make the audience chuckle at the ridiculousness of the statement made by Palin and also the fact the party knows she's not smart.