# What is Doonesbury's icon for Obama? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 14, 2009, 3:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-doonesburys-icon-for-obama/481193 "2009-01-14T03:04:06Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![WarmNPrickly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/d78d45/32.png) [@WarmNPrickly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WarmNPrickly)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2009, 3:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-doonesburys-icon-for-obama/481193/1 "2009-01-14T03:04:06Z")
Has Trudeau even come up with one yet? ---
**Author:** ![susan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/susan/32/17537_2.png) [@susan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2009, 3:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-doonesburys-icon-for-obama/481193/2 "2009-01-14T03:33:00Z")
Not that he’s told us yet, AFAIK. ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2009, 4:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-doonesburys-icon-for-obama/481193/3 "2009-01-14T04:53:57Z")
Trudeau filtered most of the campaign through the ubiquitous “talking television” or through Alex’s activism. I don’t think Obama has “appeared” in a strip yet. ---
**Author:** ![seodoa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/4af34b/32.png) [@seodoa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/seodoa)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2009, 5:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-doonesburys-icon-for-obama/481193/4 "2009-01-14T05:19:29Z")
Whatever it is, I can guarantee my father will be bitching about it next time I hear from him. I really should get mom to cut that strip out of the paper before he gets to it. ---
**Author:** ![Alan\_Smithee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/2acd7d/32.png) [@Alan\_Smithee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alan_Smithee)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2009, 5:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-doonesburys-icon-for-obama/481193/5 "2009-01-14T05:31:57Z")
A quarter? (You know, for change.) It’s not great but I can’t come up with anything better. ---
**Author:** ![Koxinga](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/4af34b/32.png) [@Koxinga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Koxinga)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2009, 5:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-doonesburys-icon-for-obama/481193/6 "2009-01-14T05:46:58Z")
I can think of a tremendously long list that it would _not_ be, I’m ashamed to say. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2009, 5:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-doonesburys-icon-for-obama/481193/7 "2009-01-14T05:47:56Z")
> [@Alan\_Smithee](#): > > A quarter? (You know, for change.) > > It’s not great but I can’t come up with anything better. Too close to the “flipping coin” icon I think he used for Clinton, with a waffle as the alternative. I can picture a wheel, for wheels of change. ---
**Author:** ![Alan\_Smithee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/2acd7d/32.png) [@Alan\_Smithee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alan_Smithee)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2009, 5:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-doonesburys-icon-for-obama/481193/8 "2009-01-14T05:48:50Z")
Wheels of change? ---
**Author:** ![WarmNPrickly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/d78d45/32.png) [@WarmNPrickly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WarmNPrickly)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2009, 11:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-doonesburys-icon-for-obama/481193/9 "2009-01-14T11:24:31Z")
I thought he might go with a halo. ---
**Author:** ![seodoa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/4af34b/32.png) [@seodoa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/seodoa)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2009, 12:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-doonesburys-icon-for-obama/481193/10 "2009-01-14T12:01:52Z")
> [@WarmNPrickly](#): > > I thought he might go with a halo. I almost made this jab, too. I’m pretty liberal when it comes to my politics, but, damn, Trudeau’s just batshit loco anymore. ---
**Author:** ![WarmNPrickly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/d78d45/32.png) [@WarmNPrickly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WarmNPrickly)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2009, 12:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-doonesburys-icon-for-obama/481193/11 "2009-01-14T12:10:40Z")
I wasn’t jabbing Trudeau, I thought it would be a good jab at Obama’s reputation as the messiah. He could go with a Lincoln hat. ---
**Author:** ![Greg\_Charles](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/839c29/32.png) [@Greg\_Charles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Greg_Charles)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2009, 1:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-doonesburys-icon-for-obama/481193/12 "2009-01-14T13:06:22Z")
I’m voting halo too. If he doesn’t go with that, it will be because it’s too obvious. Quick trivia: who was the first president to be satirized by a Doonesbury “icon” like this? I think I know, but I’ll check back. ---
**Author:** ![Nametag](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nametag/32/406_2.png) [@Nametag](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nametag)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2009, 1:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-doonesburys-icon-for-obama/481193/13 "2009-01-14T13:38:00Z")
Pretty sure it was GHW Bush - Nixon through Reagan were just voices over the White House, unless you count “Ron Headroom,” but Trudeau portrayed Bush in person, as a voice emanating from an empty chair. Dan Quayle was a similar empty space with a little feather over it, Clinton was a coin or a waffle, GWB was…what, a cowboy hat? ---
**Author:** ![Jonathan\_Chance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jonathan_chance/32/701_2.png) [@Jonathan\_Chance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jonathan_Chance)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2009, 2:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-doonesburys-icon-for-obama/481193/14 "2009-01-14T14:04:56Z")
Roman Legionnaire’s Hat, as I recall. I don’t know which way he’ll go but the halo is a good one. It can get more battered as time goes on, he can lend it to other people, etc… ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2009, 2:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-doonesburys-icon-for-obama/481193/15 "2009-01-14T14:11:47Z")
According to the Doonesbury [website](http://doonesbury.com/strip/faqs/faq_cs.html), this is the list of icons used in the strip so far: George H.W. Bush – point o’ lite Dan Quayle – feather David Duke – swastika Newt Gingrich – bomb Bill Clinton – waffle Dubya – asterisk (wearing cowboy hat) ---
**Author:** ![WarmNPrickly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/d78d45/32.png) [@WarmNPrickly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WarmNPrickly)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2009, 3:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-doonesburys-icon-for-obama/481193/16 "2009-01-14T15:24:36Z")
He used Max Headroom for Ronald Reagan. ---
**Author:** ![Simplicio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c37758/32.png) [@Simplicio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Simplicio)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2009, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-doonesburys-icon-for-obama/481193/17 "2009-01-14T15:53:53Z")
> [@WarmNPrickly](#): > > He used Max Headroom for Ronald Reagan. Max Headroom was supposed to be a different character then the actual President, wasn’t he? IIRC, he was the auxiliary Regan for when the real one didn’t want to go to work or something. ---
**Author:** ![fiddlesticks](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fiddlesticks/32/18129_2.png) [@fiddlesticks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fiddlesticks)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2009, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-doonesburys-icon-for-obama/481193/18 "2009-01-14T16:01:50Z")
Trudeau traded in Bush’s cowboy hat for an increasingly beat-up Roman soldier’s helmet as the presidency went along. ---
**Author:** ![Uvula\_Donor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/e19adc/32.png) [@Uvula\_Donor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Uvula_Donor)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2009, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-doonesburys-icon-for-obama/481193/19 "2009-01-14T16:12:19Z")
> [@Bryan\_Ekers](#): > > I can picture a wheel, for wheels of change. I wish he’d dump the stupid icons and just learn to draw caricatures. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Scrivener](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@The\_Scrivener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Scrivener)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2009, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-doonesburys-icon-for-obama/481193/20 "2009-01-14T17:10:28Z")
Trudeau could go with: a Blackberry or cell phone (reflecting the tech-savvy of his campaign) a blank slate (reflecting his relative lack of a track record in Congress) a small mirror (reflecting his admirer’s tendency to project onto him what they want him to be) a basketball sneaker – Air Jordan, classic Converse, etc. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-doonesburys-icon-for-obama/481193.md?page=2)