A Doonesbury Icon for Obama

Posted By: Peter DavidPosted On:

For the last few decades, Garry Trudeau has represented each American President with an icon. GWB went through the most, eventually ending up as a floating Roman centurion’s helmet with increasingly tattered plumage as the war dragged on.

Thus far, though, Obama has yet to be assigned an icon.  Today’s strip asserted that Obama, as “a change agent,” is too complex to be reduced to a single visual.

I find that hard to believe. Is he really so impossible to distill to an essence?

What would work?

Perhaps a handful of coins to represent change?  Or one of those old style change dispensers that you wear on your belt, or even a cash register (both of which would represent not only change, but the GOP’s assertion that he’s too ready to dispense money).  A yin and yang symbol to represent balance? Or a pair of scales? Since he is so likened to Mr. Spock, perhaps a logic board (i.e., a computer circuit board). Maybe a basketball because of his preference for shooting hoops.

Any other thoughts?

PAD

72 comments on “A Doonesbury Icon for Obama”

  2. Since some people seem to think he walks on water… Jesus.

    Since some people insist on demonizing everything he does, a pitchfork or horns.

    Since he’s a comics fan… A really bad Spidey mask. Or a Conan helmet.

  3. Isn’t it obvious? A teleprompter screen with any of his dialogue written out on it.

  4. That’s easy. The teleprompter – for better or worse has been used by right and left (and Obama at the correspondent’s dinner) to describe him.

    1. Stole my thunder! Instead of a dialogue indicator, though, put his lines on the teleprompter screen.

      1. That would be a great way to get around having to draw a ‘prompter on a regular basis — nice one!

    2. By far, a teleprompter is the best option, because the change has already been scripted out. Good or bad, Obama knows what he wants and is making it happen.

      Iowa Jim

  6. The teleprompter’s not bad, but strikes me as very tough to draw on a regular basis.
    .
    I like PAD’s suggestion of the scales, although the basketball strikes me as likely.
    .
    Akin to Aaron’s suggestion of Jesus … a halo, maybe?
    .
    TWL

  9. When dealing with things that go over well… A basketball swishing nothin’ but net.
     
    For things that are not well received… A bowling ball in the gutter.
     
    Eh. Probably not. Don’t know how feasible or clear either would be to draw, though presumably they’d be “canned” for repeated use.
     
    Anyway that’s all I got off the top of my head. I’m sure it will be something much better.

  10. I recall Trudeau played around with his audience a bit before he settled on Dubya’s first icon (an empty ten-gallon hat). This is probably more of the same.

    A basketball would be a bad idea, unless he wanted to get angry letters.

      1. It’d be a bad idea because an icon is a simplification and that’s a really bad simplification. It doesn’t say anything about what kind of President he is. Nixon was a good bowler and Clinton enjoyed golf, but a bowling ball and a golf club would not have been very meaningful icons for them.

        There is also a racial component. The reason a lot of young black kids in America pin their hopes on becoming sports or music stars is because that’s who most of their visible role models are. The popular black figures are sports stars and entertainers. Obama isn’t the only black role model outside of that, but he’s one of just a few and by far the biggest. To make it look like basketball is his most identifiable feature is a disservice to him and to everyone else.

        A professor’s cap would be a much better symbol of who he is.

    1. Have to be really careful, though, how you’d draw that. Too easy to make it look like a peanut.

  12. If W. ended up being a Roman centurion’s helmet, I thought perhaps Obama could be represented by something indicative of whatever followed the Roman Empire.
     
    Not being a history buff, I had no idea what followed the Roman Empire so I Googled the question. This WikiAnswers page was no help to me though. Perhaps someone else would be able to do something appropriate with the empire succession concept???

    2. Doesn’t really work. After Rome you have Barbarian kingdom, Byzantium and early Christian Church, heretics, missionaries, pagans, monks. Not the kind of imagery that fits Obama. He’s not exactly a Dark Ages candidate. More a Renaissance kind of guy. Maybe what’s right for him is that Da-Vinci drawing — the Vetrusian(?) Man?

  13. I wonder if maybe he’s tired of the conceit. Back in the old days, he just left the president off panel for most of his political strips.

      1. Well…Ron Headrest was a caricature (only Presidential one he’s ever done so far as I know). The true icons started with the Bush/Quayle administration.

        I confess I’ve never been a big fan of the icon routine…and I can see why Trudeau might be having trouble with it when it comes to Obama. The Pres simply hasn’t done or said anything to define himself sufficiently for iconic purposes (positively OR negatively – and the icon really does have to be based in a negative if it’s going to have any satirical effect.)

        Best illustration is the “halo” suggestion several people have made (and which today’s strip implies may be along the lines of what Trudeau has in mind): it’s based on a perception (or attempted labeling) of Obama’s supporters but doesn’t really apply to anything the guy himself has said or done. A halo WOULD have worked as an icon for Jimmy Carter had Trudeau been doing the schtick at the time: while I liked and admired Carter (and still do), there was sometimes a sanctimonious or messianic air about the man that people found annoying as hëll.

        (Come to think of it, Trudeau would have been spoilt for choice for Carter icons: if not the halo, a disembodied grin a’la the Cheshire Cat – i.e., nothing much behind the positive front, which was how Trudeau frequently portrayed him anyway. A peanut would have been obvious, but again without much satirical point.)

        I think the teleprompter idea above comes closest to the mark; it keys into the fact that Obama uses the prompter as a crutch and carries the larger symbolism that his administration is often a bit too scripted and controlled in its behavior and responses.

        But I’d like it better if Trudeau went back to (or rather continued with) the off-camera voice, or took the leap into doing a full caricature.

      2. “…Obama uses the prompter as a crutch…”
        .
        Anybody who makes a long speech on television these days uses a teleprompter. In the old days, they just read off paper, which, because the camera never blinks, led to a lot of up and down movement of the head by the speech maker. This was very distracting.
        .
        Even Reagan used a teleprompter.

      3. The teleprompter itself isn’t a crutch – I used one myself numerous times while in the military. (Funnily enough, I briefly worked with the Air Force NCO who wound up as President Clinton’s regular teleprompter operator.)
        .
        The “crutch” – which Obama even jokingly acknowledged in his Press Club appearance – comes in where he doesn’t do ANY address, no matter how short, without the ‘prompter if at all possible. Particularly when we’ve seen that he does just about as well off the cuff.

  14. A barcode?

    1. Sales to stimulate the econ.

    2. More so than most (IMO)Presidental candidates in the past Obama was presented as “Product.”

  15. I like the balance symbols, AND I like the basketball, and I’d like to see them combined in some way. The trick with the basketball is to use it in a way that shows, “This is something the President likes to do,” rather than, “BECAUSE HE’S BLACK, GET IT?!”

    1. I hate to point out the obvious, but in newspapers where the strip is in black and white, a rainbow is going to be tough to convey.
      .
      PAD

  17. Everyone sees what they want to see in Obama. Democratic supporters see what they want to see (all posiitves), Repubs see what they want to see (all negatives).

    How about (after getting permission of Moore and Gibbons, of course) a Rorshach Pattern for his icon?

    1. If everyone sees what they want, then in a way they’re seeing a reflection of themselves. Maybe he should just have a mirror.
      .
      PAD

      1. That’s not bad. Young people see themselves in Obama. As do Black people. With a part of his story being his biracial parents and white grandparents, so do White people.

        And a mirror isn’t always a positive thing. It could be used in a variety of ways to imply bad things, if Trudeau wants to.

  18. Perhaps a magician’s hat? Signifies a bit of the work that he’s going to need to do, I think, pulling something out of nothing. Bunny or no bunny, though?

  19. Since the teleprompter’s already been mentioned, I’d suggest an empty suit or a large zero. Both would be appropriate.

  21. No other ideas for an Obama icon, but I’m wondering now about a Biden icon. That one could be more fun.
    What was Cheney’s symbol? Or doesn’t Trudeau do the veeps?
    I thought he did, but I’m drawing a blank at the moment. Though I read Doonesbury, it’s not my favorite strip so I don’t commit the details to long term memory.

    1. Testing something here with re to trying to get the paragraph spacing right.
       
      I don’t think it will work, but just wanted to try while I’m thinking about it.
      Thanks for your patience.

      1. OK. It appears I’ve found two ways to get the paragraph spacing to a true blank line in between.
         
        Both involve using the special hardcoded “no break space” character represented by ampersand-nbsp-semicolon (drop the dashes out and replace the words ampersand and semicolon with the actual corresponding characters).
         
        I did actual paragraphs as either normal text ending with a br/ tag or as text within p and /p tags.
         
        Then wherever you want a blank line between paragraphs, use the special nbsp; character the same way you did the actual paragraphs, either ending with a br/ tag or within p and /p tags. Essentially you’re just forcing a blank paragraph between actual blank paragraphs.
         
        Waaaaay too complicated and very easy to mess up, of course. But if you feel you absolutely MUST have a blank line between paragraphs it can be done via such obsessive-compulsive hoop jumping.
         
        There may be other ways to refine it, but I don’t want to go nuts (well, any MORE nuts). Others can experiment if they care, which they probably don’t. The use of the nbsp; character seems to be necessary as far as I can tell, but I could be wrong. I’ll try just a double br/ here to end this paragraph and we’ll obviously see how that turns out. If it works, then that’s a way to avoid doing the nbsp;br/ thing. If not, then the nbsp-br/ thing is probably necessary.
        All in all, it’s easier to just do the simple period thing.
         
        Again, apologies for wasting folks’ time with stupid stuff, but that’s it for my experimenting. Thanks for your patience.

  23. OK, the back-to-back br/ tags without the nbsp; did NOT work. Unfortunately the sentence beginning “All in all…” was supposed to be a separate paragraph, but looks like part of the prior one due to its happening to end near the end of the allotted line.
     
    So I felt I had to clarify even though I really didn’t want to have to comment off-topic yet again. So the nbsp; seems to be necessary with the br/ to force blank line paragraphs between regular paragraphs.
     
    Yeah, the period method is still best really, certainly simplest. And yeah, I’m sure no one cares and this is no doubt very annoying. But I like to try to figure out puzzles and workarounds for weird issues. Bye.

  24. Since he’s about change, something akin to a Picasso painting. Eyes straight on, nose in profile, 2 mouths, stain-glass body, etc.

  25. Obama has yet to develop an easily parodiable gimmick, so just give it a few months.

    I’d like the suggestion of the Blackberry or Similar PDA/Phone.

  26. I think what someone said earlier, about the professor’s cap, would be the most appropriate. Or any other scholarly or academic imagery for that matter.

  27. An asterisk: *

    In the world of computers and code, * is a “wildcard” symbol. It means literally “everything”.

    In sports, it has come to represent the “yes, but” mentality associated with record-setting seasons or performances.* It’s usually used by people that, rightfully or not, *don’t* want to see “change”, and want to preserve the past.

    Since President Obama seems to stand for something different for every individual, even more so than any other public figure of whom I’ve ever been aware, and since there are some who adamantly oppose those changes he represents, I think a floating asterisk would be a perfect symbol for Trudeau to use. 🙂

    Wildcat

    *See: Barry Bonds’ “steroids asterisk” and Mark McGuire’s “162-game season” asterisk.**

    **Oh yeah, asterisks also sometimes represent a shorthand notation for the indication of footnotes. See what I did just there? 😀

    1. Trudeau already used an asterisk to represent Bush. As you alluded to with sports, after Bush V. Gore, it represented the notion that yes, he was president, but…
      .
      PAD

  28. Although a teleprompter is an easy choice, it really doesn’t work. Unlike Clinton who defined himself as a serial waffler and W. who was widely regarded as a “yes, but only because” president, a cowboy, or a self-styled war president, Obama hasn’t come across a president who overly or slavishly relies upon a teleprompter or continual scripting. He may at some later date, but it simply isn’t an accurate distillation of the man or his administration.

    Quite frankly, a question mark symbolizing the fact that no one has a handle on him yet is a good start. Failing that, something professorial.

    1. My main problem with the teleprompter is that it’s more a joke than anything else, and the joke is already getting a little old.

      Almost all politicians use teleprompters when they can. If they don’t, then their speech is printed out and put on the podium in front of them, which has the exact same result except they look down a lot. So it’s not at all specific to Obama the way a cowboy hat would be specific to Bush.

      Plus, the teleprompters really aren’t that visible. They usually only show in in wide shots and those wide shots make them look so small their not very noticeable. I think the people who really pay attention to politics are aware of the teleprompter joke, but most people wouldn’t have any idea what one was.

  29. I’m still gonna go with my earlier suggestion of a Professor’s cap. The Obama fans will like it because it symbolizes how smart he is. The detractors might also like it because it symbolizes how Obama is lecturing to them all the time.

  30. He could use the basketball when he’s doing something well…and a bowling ball when he does something wrong (wrong being in this case defined as “something Garry Trudeau disagrees with”).
    .
    But he will catch some hëll for it…as will PAD, most likely, from the people who are determined to confirm their libels against him, for this very thread (“Did you see how on Peter David’s blog people are suggesting that Obama be represented by a basketball? I’m surprised they didn’t suggest a watermelon!”)

  32. How about a slightly italicized 3-D ‘O’, like the one Oprah uses for her logo, but slanted in the opposite direction.
    According to many stand-up comics, she DID get him elected.

  34. Easy: A picture of Neil Gaiman’s the Sandman, particularly the panel from issue #4 I think it was, where he defeats the demon by saying, “I am hope.”

  38. I just scrolled through all the responses and it looks like “TelePrompTer” has the most “votes”. But I’m a bit surprised in a superhero related blog that no one has mentioned Alex Ross’s Superman-esque Obama image on t-shirts around election time.

    Perhaps a Superman like logo with an “O” instead of “S”. It would signify the heroic feelings of his supporters as well as the “we don’t need you and the government to save us” attitude of his critics. This could all be done without messianic imagery (halos, Jesus) sure to stir up trouble with us Christians, and such imagery would undoubtably make our President more than a bit uncomfortable…

    –Captain Naraht

    P.S. Anyone know where I can get one of those Alex Ross t-shirts cheap?

  40. I love the allusion to an Ice Cream Man in white (White House)/black President (good humor bar) with the “change” dispenser fastened on his belt as he reads a teleprompter with the “menu/selections” of the day for ice cream (bills, grants, takeovers, handouts, etc!) Go Doonesbury GO!

  43. Its so obvious I can’t believe no one has suggested it – a FLY – or swarm of them covering his head since he seems to attract them: http://tinyurl.com/3yp29eu

    But then again, Trudeau is too much of a wimp to make fun of his savior.

  46. Seems the whole thing is moot. Three years into this regime and still no icon. There will never be an Obama icon in Doonesbury because apparently Progressive liberals view their leaders the same way the Iranians do. After all how can one capture the Godliness
    of Obama in a mere cartoon?

    1. See? See what happens if I go for a few days without discussing political issues? Conservatives are reduced to bringing up topics from two years ago in order to lob unprovoked potshots.
      .
      PAD

      1. I’m wondering what goes through the mind of someone who is so dead set on responding that they don’t even bother to look at how old the comments are.
        .
        Or, considering the number of political threads since, how they even managed to find *this* specific thread to respond to.

      2. .
        It also makes one wonder if the poster is older than 12 as he shows no signs of remembering the fact that Garry Trudeau had unflattering icons for Bill Clinton and others on the left over the years as well as portraying them in negative ways. As a matter of fact, one of Rush’s favorite attacks on Gore during the 2000 campaign, from calling Gore “The Prince” to discussing his “growing up” in DC hotels, he lifted whole from the Doonesbury run during the Democratic primaries running up to the ’92 election.

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