Sketchy Plans: How Top Cartoonists Plan Draw a Bead on President Obama

By: Mark Fitzgerald Barack Obama isn't going to get a shave now that's he's been elected president ? but he isn't getting a free pass from syndicated editorial cartoonists, either, whether politically conservative or liberal. True, cartoonists across the nation haven't portrayed Obama before the election in the rough kind of way that Herblock ? The Washington Post's Herbert Block ? caricatured Richard Nixon before his 1968 election. In one of the most famous editorial cartoons, Herblock offered a "free shave" to presidents-elect, thereafter changing his portrayal of Nixon as a swarthy character to one who, even if he was still a crook in the cartoonist's view, was at least clean-shaven.

Whatever their political viewpoint, one thing editorial cartoonists agree upon with this president is that he's easy to caricature.

"He's got a better face to caricature than (Republican nominee John) McCain because his face is long, and he's got those ears," says Chuck Asay of Creators Syndicate. "He's a very handsome guy, and he's got ears like George Bush. And he's got that messiah-like character that is easy to make fun of."

Asay, a political conservative, is looking forward to at least four years of an Obama presidency: "It's a win/win situation for me because I disagree so much with his politics. I know there will be much fodder for me to go after. He'll be easy to both criticize and caricature."

Obama was "pretty easy" to capture in caricature, says Nick Anderson, the Houston Chronicle cartoonist syndicated by The Washington Post Writers Group, but McCain was a challenge: "I would exaggerate the features ? the big cheeks and the balding hair ? but for a long time it wouldn't look like him."

It was the opposite problem for Scott Stantis, the Birmingham (Ala.) Daily News cartoonist, whose editorial cartoons are syndicated by Copley News Service and whose "Prickly City" strip is syndicated by Universal Press Syndicate. He got a pretty quick fix on the GOP nominee: "McCain, of course, looks like he's a squirrel, storing up nuts for the winter, with those cheeks. He's very animated, and he's got those short arms he can't lift above his shoulders."

Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin was also easy, says Stantis, who adds, "I've gotta admit I had a crush on her."

Obama, on the other hand, is more like a still-life. But that's where the magic of cartooning comes in, Stantis says. "We have this wonderful medium where we can have people fly and jump and twist around," he says. "It's so weird to me that cartoonists don't take advantage of that."

Among some politically liberal cartoonists, there's a fear that Obama ? a smart and disciplined politician not given to gaffes and risible appetites ? will be a difficult subject on the drawing board.

"He's just going to be very difficult to mock," Mike Luckovich, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution cartoonist syndicated by Creators Syndicate, told an NPR interviewer just before the election.

"It's going to be the end of cartooning as we know it," agreed Mike Peters of the Dayton (Ohio) Daily News, syndicated by King Features Syndicate Inc.

But other liberal cartoonists aren't especially worried that they'll have no material to work with in an Obama presidency.

Nick Anderson, for instance, tells E&P he went through a similar situation when Bill Clinton was elected in 1992.

"People at the time said, 'Well, if Clinton wins, what are you going to do? You won't have anything to make fun of,'" Anderson says with a laugh. But the 42nd president obviously was an unending source of cartoon topics.

"The election of McCain and Palin would be better for me professionally because I disagree with them more profoundly on the issues, but even if I like somebody I don't think it's all that difficult to find something to work with," he adds.

Indeed, even politically conservative editorial cartoonists find Obama likeable.

"I'm a conservative but I'm constantly impressed with this guy, by his demeanor and his discipline. If you're a person who loves ideas I think you have to be impressed by him," says Stantis.

That doesn't mean, though, that Stantis can't cut him down to size ? in subtle as well as obvious ways. Like other cartoonists, Stantis exaggerates Obama's slimness, his long face, and his projecting ears. But he also emphasizes what he regards as Obama's imperiousness, the way the president-elect strikes a pose of looking off into the distance.

"It's a great way to project elitism, as if he's ignoring the problem altogether," Stantis says. He catches himself and laughs, "This is the only profession where you can have discussions like this."

New presidents typically get a short honeymoon from the press, and some cartoonists think Obama will benefit from that phenomenon as well.

Rick McKee, the Augusta (Ga.) Chronicle cartoonist syndicated by North America Syndicate, opposed Obama throughout the long campaign, but he says the new president is "definitely going to get the benefit of the doubt from me."

Indeed, despite his political views, McKee says Obama's election was a "great day for America." And for cartoonists of his political bent. "For conservatives, there's going to be a lot of opportunities for the next four to eight years," he adds, with a laugh.

McKee, for one, isn't going to change his approach to drawing Obama now that he's been elected president ? but he can predict that down the line President Obama will look different than he did on Inaugural Day.

"Typically, presidents tend to get shorter and smaller in stature as their terms go on," McKee says. "Certainly that happened with Bill Clinton and George Bush."

But liberal Nick Anderson isn't inclined to give President-elect Obama a pass in his first 100 days.

"A honeymoon? No, not consciously," he says. "If there is a bit of honeymoon, it's because you're waiting to get a fix on the new administration. The early part of an administration usually isn't as controversial only because they are following through on what they said they'd do."

For all their professional kidding, cartoonists see the beginning of a new presidency as serious business.

"You have to come at it like you are the president of the United States," says Stantis. "For all our infantile humor and observations, [cartoonists] at the end of the day, are the grownups. We have to make the decisions. We have to say where we stand."