The 9 Worst Obama Editorial Cartoons

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obama_tophat.jpg For the most part, America’s editorial cartoonists have gotten better at drawing Obama over the last year. They’re no longer depicting him as a generic black guy but as an unique individual with his own distinctive features. (I’m sure there’s a dissertation topic in there somewhere about how this somehow mirrored many white Americans’ evolving views of candidate Obama.) But there are some still some stragglers, whom I feel obligated to call out—in the name of improving the quality of political satire, of course. Not that good editorial cartoonists have to be good caricaturists: The Washington Post‘s Tom Toles, who is for my money the most original of the newsprint cartoonists, draws Obama like he has a bow tie stuck behind his head. But at least it kinda, sorta looks like him.

What bugs me are the cartoonists who still do the random-black-dude thing or use some kind of slapdash combo of Obama’s most prominent features (“Big ears? Check! Angular chin? Check! Longer than average torso? Check!”). Or worse. After the jump, a collection of nine of the most egregious examples of editorial cartoonists’ attempts to capture Obama’s likeness, and some thoughts on who—or what—they actually look like.

Editorial Cartoonists’ 9 Worst Attempts at Drawing Obama

obama_alien.jpg
Our new alien overlord. (As drawn by Tony Auth.)

obama_nixon2.jpg
Richard Nixon: Slightly tanned, rested, and ready! (As drawn by Signe Wilkinson.)

obama_terrible.jpg
From the forthcoming collection, Fifth Graders Draw Racial Stereotypes. (As drawn by Ken Catalino.)

obama_lbj.jpg
Hey, hey, LBJ! (As drawn by Glenn McCoy.)

obama_brzez.jpg
A barely reanimated Leonid Brezhnev. (As drawn by Gary Markstein.)

obama_vulcan.jpg
Tuvok, the black Vulcan. (As drawn by Marshall Ramsey.)

obama_jennings.jpg
The late Peter Jennings. (As drawn by David Horsey.)

obma_rall.jpg
The zombie twin of Dr. Julius Hibbert. (As drawn by Ted Rall.)

obama_tophat.jpg
A selection from Now That’s What I Call Borderline Offensive Clip Art, Volume 3 (As drawn by Gary McCoy.)

PLUS: Honorable Mentions, International Division

obama%20cuomo.jpg
Mario Cuomo… walking like an Egyptian. (As drawn by the Vancouver Sun‘s Roy Peterson.)

obama_cianci.jpg
A man with “Obama” embroidered on his jacket. (Wonsoo is from South Korea, but that’s really no excuse.)

obama_blue.jpg
Blue-lipped Obama, as drawn by three confused Canadian cartoonists. (Perhaps responding to Gary McCoy’s overly bipartisan purple-lipped Obama?)

Your nominations and suggestions of what these artists were thinking in the comments…

Images from Slate‘s Today’s Cartoons and Daryl Cagle’s Political Cartoonists Index

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