My Photo Album Page 1

In this season of presidential (and vice presidential) candidate debates, a look back. I haven't often drawn about whatever became the memorable moment of the debates in my lifetime -- I have no cartoon about the Bentsen-Quayle debate at all, for example. My attention always seems to have been caught by other moments in these debates, such as the 1984 answer Ronald Reagan gave to the question, "Which of his comments do you think your opponent, Walter Mondale, should be held accountable for?" The start of Reagan's answer seemed awkward in light of the Gipper's own fiscal record.

The insistence by broadcast media of declaring a winner immediately after any candidates' debate has always been of great annoyance to me. It is well known that radio listeners to the first Kennedy-Nixon debate in 1960 thought that Nixon had won, whereas TV watchers thought Kennedy had won. Conventional wisdom is that radio listeners couldn't see Nixon's sweaty upper lip or his five-o'clock shadow, but you also have to take into consideration whether the sort of people who tuned into the debate on their radios would have been more inclined to support the Establishment Republican than would those who sat down in front of their televisions. Lately, there has been a welcome increase in fact-checking after a debate is over, but for the most part, the talking heads still focus more on style than substance.

When I watched the 1992 debate among Bill Clinton, H. Ross Perot and George H.W. Bush, I didn't even see Bush check his watch. Instead, I noticed Bush's criticism of Clinton for claiming to have different opinions of specific parts of some legislation.

One unfortunate aspect of drawing cartoons about moments the mainstream media pass over is that I have to draw really, really wordy cartoons like this one just so the reader knows what I'm talking about. That might be fine for Tom Tomorrow or any clip-art-based cartoonist, but for someone who actually pens four pictures and 91 words, that can make it hard to beat a deadline.

This cartoon about the 2000 debate between Al Gore and George W. Bush, on the other hand, dealt with all the major media (and internet) talking points emerging from that evening.

Here, too, the exchange between vice presidential candidates John Edwards and Dick Cheney in 2004 over Mary Cheney's sexual orientation did get plenty of notice at the time. So did Cheney's spurious claim that he had never met the South Carolina senator prior to their debate. Oh, by the way: yearbook.

TO THE CAMPAIGN 2008 CARTOONS

BACK TO MY FRONT PAGE

Tell me what YOU think! + View Guestbook + View the old guestbook

Thanks for stopping by!

(C) 2008 pierberge(at)aol(dot)com

This page hosted by Get your own Free Home Page