Q Toon: Chaos at Kennedy Center

I introduced Max's mother into the Leo and Max series last winter as working in some undefined capacity at the John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts. Leo and Max are avatars for the divisions in the Ostensibly United States of America in general; Karen is just my opening for addressing a specific topic.

Open homocon Ric Grenell could have served as my excuse to draw cartoons about the JFK Center; I had drawn a few cartoons about him before Trump named him as his Trump’s chief lieutenant there. But he didn't last very long in that position; his career is in foreign policy after all, not performing arts.

So it turns out that having a recurring character remaining behind among Trump’s lickspittle Board of Misdirectors comes in handy. Leo, the liberal, seems to enjoy needling Karen about Donald Diva Trump’s mission of recreating it as a memorial to himself or razing it to the ground.

I took a risk in drawing this cartoon that the JFK Center would still be standing by the time my cartoon saw print. Trump's modus operandi has been to tear things down before anyone has a chance to stop him (e.g, the East Wing, trees of the East Potomac Golf Links, ethical standards, constitutional norms, and he's still just getting started).

Is it telling that the JFK Center board named a new Artistic Director, but as a contractor, not a hire? No, it's not Kimberly Guilfoyle; it's Rick Canny, who, I hear, has worked with ZZ Top and Tommy Lee, so at least he's not some random Trumpster. Since performers have cancelled in droves, and Executive Director Matthew Floca closed the Center's main building months ago on account of supposed life-safety concerns, however, I'm not clear on what art Mr. Canny has to direct.

The Center's current regime put an end to those rainbow ribbons that came with JFK Center awards, so perhaps Mr. Canny can work on a more Trumpy design for when Trump celebrates giving all the awards to himself. A Confederate flag motif, perhaps.

You can guess whose scowling face will be on the gold-plated marble award medal.

Well, if I keep this up, I'm gonna spoil any possibility of bringing Karen back in a future cartoon, so enough is enough. 

Unless she ends up working along with everybody else from the JFK Center at the Donald Commodius Trump Presidential White House Memorial Ballroom and Bunker for the Performing Arts.

This Week's Retro Peek

I'm reposting this panel from a Leo & Max cartoon back in January just as a reminder of Max's mother, Karen, and where she works. 

Leo's family background may get treatment someday. Somehow, they never showed up while Leo was abducted by ICE agents and flown to some s-hole country's civil war, so perhaps they're just not very close. 

Or maybe we just haven't seen them because they're terribly shy.

Q Toon: Ric Rolls with the Punches

Since I had introduced Max's mother Karen during my vacation as someone working at the Donald J. Trump John Fitzgerald Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts (hereinafter referred to as the DJTJFKMC4PA), who better to interact with newly former President of the DJTJFKMC4PA, Ric Grenell?

Gay Republican Grenell has a track record of stirring up opposition wherever he goes. Republican Theocrats were up in arms when presidential candidate Mitt Romney took him on as a foreign policy surrogate; he later repeatedly offended his hosts as Ambassador to Germany in Donald Trump's First Corrupt Presidency.

With the recrudescence of Trump, Grenell came on board to oversee the bastardization of the JFK Center, sending artists and audiences streaming toward the exits. He and a new board of Trump lickspittles and right-wing ideologues rubber stamped Trump’s impetuous response to shut the DJTJFKMC4PA down for so-called renovations for the next two years.

Now, we don't know whether Grenell quit or was fired. Nor do we know what his plans for the future are; New York Times reporter Elizabeth Williamson attempted to ask him that quite reasonable question, only for him to throw a hissy fit back at her, huffing that she is a "left wing hack” manipulating the news.

Not the response of someone who left of her own accord, girl!

I drew my cartoon before Williamson and Grenell’s exchange became public. I suppose I would have had to draw a completely different cartoon otherwise, but Karen is not a New York Times reporter or a left wing hack. I wrote her as a rock-solid Republican. Whether she's a lickspittle or an ideologue — well, you'll have to wait and see.

At any rate, to have Grenell snap at Karen would require him to be even more of an unhinged sissy than I think he is.

But what do I know? I'm just a left-wing hack interested in attacking Republicans and manipulating the news for my own far left agenda.

Q Toon: Exit Stage Left

Here's Part Two of Mama's visit to Max and Leo's humble abode.

I've made an effort to by coy about where Max and Leo live — in what city, town, or village (someplace with a couples therapist and a coffee shop, however), what part of the country, and whether in a house or apartment. Hence the introduction of Max's mother, who, it can now be revealed is on or works for the board of directors for the so-called Donald J. Trump John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts.

It can also be revealed that I was away on vacation when the deadlines for last week's and this week's cartoons arrived, so these two cartoons were drawn well ahead of time. In fact, they were drawn before the Washington D.C. Opera withdrew from the DJTJFKMC4PA last month. (The Center's President Ric Grenell claims they were fired; perhaps the company wanted to present Emmett Till: the Opera by Clare Coss and Mary D. Watkins. Or had commissioned an opera about Jeffrey Epstein.)

So anyway, I've spent the last few weeks hoping that none of the real entertainers mentioned in this cartoon kick the bucket, or get arrested by ICE for protesting in Minneapolis, or denounce the renaming of the DJTJFKMC4PA. 

But then our pouty mercurial president went and brayed on Trump Social that now he is shutting the DJTJFKMC4PA down for two years in order to redesign it into the gilded Louis XIV whorehouse he’s always dreamed of.

The center’s staff learned of the imminent closure through Trump’s Truth Social post, which proposed “temporarily” closing the “Trump Kennedy Center” for “Construction, Revitalization, and Complete Rebuilding” starting July 4. Trump added the move is subject to approval by the center’s board, which he chairs. — https://wapo.st/3NRd901

Phuoc that gagh damask whole.

Q Toon: Culture Cancels Back

Who says there's never any news between the holidays?

Chuck Redd is a jazz vibraphonist and drummer who has presented the Christmas Eve "Jazz Jams" at the John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts every year since 2006. This year, he abruptly canceled his performance after Donald Joffrey Trump's handpicked board of directors voted to deface the building by bolting his name above President Kennedy's. 

“When I saw the name change on the Kennedy Center website and then hours later on the building, I chose to cancel our concert,” Redd told The Associated Press.

If you were hoping to ring in the new year with the jazz stylings of The Coolers, they, too, canceled tonight's program. Redd and the Coolers are by no means alone in disassociating themselves from the Trumpified JFK Center. 

Trump, in one of the first acts of his second term as President of the United States, fired the JFK Center's existing Board of Directors, naming a new board who elected Trump its Chairman. In response, producers of Hamilton canceled its 2026 run at the Kennedy Center; actor/producer Issa Rae and J. Geils Band lead singer Peter Wolf and folk singer Kristy Lee called off their scheduled appearances, as has Doug Varone's Dance Company; and folk musician Rhiannon Giddens moved her concert to a different D.C. venue, The Anthem. 

The Brooklyn-based Puerto Rican band Balún canceled their concert there last February, explaining, "Recent events made it clear that the space no longer aligns with our values. Our safety, integrity, and commitment to justice come first." The Washington National Opera were also mulling leaving the DJTJFK Center due to a 43%  drop in ticket sales since the Trumpsters' hostile takeover, although they have since denied thinking about it

The Center's Trumpist president, Ric Grenell, has announced that the DJTJFK board plans to sue Redd for breach of contract, sending Mr. Redd an angry letter on "Donald J. Trump & John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts" letterhead.

My guess is that Mr. Redd's lawyers might argue that he is not in breach of contract because anything calling itself "The Donald J. Trump & John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts Board of Directors" has no authority to act on behalf of the John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts. The Center's birthname was explicitly mandated by congressional act at its creation, and another act of Congress would be required to change it.

Given Mr. Trump's history of stiffing contractors and performers at the long since bankrupt casino bearing his name, I wouldn't count on paychecks from the transfigured DJTJFK Center being worth the paper they would be printed on. No doubt, the ether through which any bitcoin from them wafts is worth even less.

✍

By the way, per U.S. Code § 76j,

(b)Restriction on additional memorials

(1)Except as provided in paragraph (2) of this subsection, the Board shall assure that after December 2, 1983, no additional memorials or plaques in the nature of memorials shall be designated or installed in the public areas of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.

(2)Paragraph (1) of this subsection shall not apply to—

(A)any plaque acknowledging a gift from a foreign country;

(B)any plaque on a theater chair or a theater box acknowledging the gift of such chair or box; and

(C)any inscription on the marble walls in the north or south galleries, the Hall of States, or the Hall of Nations acknowledging a major contribution;

which plaque or inscription is permitted under policies of the Board in effect on December 2, 1983.

Space. The Final Vomitorium.

When I slap together these Graphical History Tours featuring my own cartoons, I usually dredge up one cartoon from each decade marker for the month. But when I started looking through the cartoons from April of 1985, I couldn't decide which one I wanted to write about.

So here are a whole bunch of them.

in UW-Parkside Ranger, Somers Wis., Apr. 25, 1985

With the current maladministration punishing any media that don't kowtow to Trumpspeak, here's a reminder of an earlier president's efforts to get reporters to echo the Official Line.

Unlike the Gulf of Mexico, which has bore that name for centuries, the Reagan administration's space-based "Strategic Defense Initiative" was brand new. But it was popularly called "Star Wars" after the film series. Reagan and spokesflack Larry Speakes were up against late-night comedians and editorial cartoonists. "Star Wars" was shorter than "Strategic Defense Initiative" and pithier than "SDI."

in UW-Parkside Ranger, Kenosha Wis., Apr. 4, 1985

This cartoon starred local Congressman Les Aspin (D-WI) in a triple role. The inset copies a cartoon I had drawn for the Ranger the previous November, after Aspin had debated Republican challenger Pete Janssen on the Parkside campus, cruising on his way to an eighth term. First elected in 1970 as a critic of the Vietnam War who had served as a U.S. Army officer in Vietnam and a Pentagon systems analyst under Robert MacNamara.

With some serious seniority under his belt in 1985, the Defense Department gadfly was named Chair of the House Armed Services Committee, and his more conservative positions soon came to the fore. I drew this cartoon after he voted in favor of Reagan's Star Wars program and the controversial MX missile system.

He would also support Reagan administration aid to the Contras fighting against the socialist government of Nicaragua, and later, George H.W. Bush's build-up to the Gulf War I. It got him deposed as Armed Services Committee Chair, but only briefly; it also got him named Bill Clinton's Secretary of Defense.

In the meantime, his House position in those days got us Blue Angel fly-overs on Fourths of July hereabouts.

in UW-Parkside Ranger, Kenosha Wis., Apr. 11, 1985

Wharton School of Business D-student Donald Trump has been wreaking havoc recklessly imposing and revoking draconian tariffs, eviscerating your 401k and college savings fund. It's all part of his cunning plan to undo decades of global free trade.

Forty years ago, the postwar American dominance of world markets was suddenly challenged by Japan. In the 1960's, Americans considered Japanese products cheap and of inferior quality; but after the energy crisis of the 1970's made gas-guzzlers unfashionable, Japanese automakers produced fuel-efficient cars while U.S. automakers were slow to retool.

The U.S. complaint was that Japan was not letting American goods into their country while underselling our domestic manufacturers. (And then buying our domestic manufacturers.) At the end of March, both houses of Congress voted overwhelmingly in favor of resolutions calling for retaliation against Japan unless it reduced its trade imbalance with the U.S. Over the course of the year, 300 protectionist bills were introduced in Congress by members of both political parties. 

So the Reagan, Bush, and Clinton administrations hammered out free trade agreements wherever they could; and thus Coke was able to teach the world to sing in perfect harmony. And domestic manufacturers moved all the jobs to Mexico, China, and wherever the median wage was a bushel of beans per month.

✍

I drew an alternating pair of comic strips for the Ranger that year. "Reductio and Absurdam" starred a man and a woman — I never established which was Reductio and which was Absurdam — who appeared in a variety of situations. They might be a couple, or co-workers, or teller and customer, as the gag warranted.

"Reductio and Absurdam" in UW-Parkside Ranger, Kenosha Wis., April 11, 1985

The only consistent conceit was that, except for any text, I drew the cartoon in charcoal. The problem with charcoal as opposed to india ink is that I couldn't go back and erase pencil marks showing around the charcoal. 

I called the other cartoon "Post Nasal Strip." That I drew with india ink, the medium I've relied on for most of my cartoons for not quite 60 years. 

"Post Nasal Strip" in UW-Parkside Ranger, Kenosha Wis., Apr. 11, 1985

"Post Nasal Strip" tended to be more topical than "Reductio and Absurdam," here highlighting a quote by Sen. Jake Garn (R-UT) upon his return from a jaunt into outer space on the space shuttle Discovery. NASA had publicly mused about sending a artist, journalist, or teacher as the first civilian into space, but gave the seat to the Chair of the Senate Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Science and Related Agencies instead.

Garn had flown as a pilot with the U.S. Navy and the Utah National Guard before winning election to Congress in 1974. Designated "payload specialist" for the Discovery flight, he was the guinea pig for experiments on Space Adaptation Syndrome. So basically, he was there to throw up.

And so he did. And the rest is History.

"Jake Garn was sick, was pretty sick. I don't know whether we should tell stories like that. But anyway, Jake Garn, he has made a mark in the Astronaut Corps because he represents the maximum level of space sickness that anyone can ever attain, and so the mark of being totally sick and totally incompetent is one Garn. Most guys will get maybe to a tenth Garn, if that high. And within the Astronaut Corps, he forever will be remembered by that."

Two side notes about my cartoon: I snuck in the Ranger Features Editor, Jim Niebuhr, as the fellow delivering the punch line in the final panel. And yes, having performed on a thrust stage, I know what a vomitorium really is.

in UW-Parkside Ranger, Somers Wis., May 2, 1985

Last week's Graphical History Tour was all about the fall of South Vietnam, so I'll close with this cartoon drawn for its tenth anniversary.

The cartoon was supposed to accompany an article about the anniversary. The article didn't run, but the Ranger ran my cartoon anyway, just below the cartoon I had drawn for the editorial page.

You'll notice that there is one president missing from my cartoon. There was a war in Vietnam (this time with China) during Jimmy Carter during his presidency, but the U.S. stayed out of if. Nor did Carter commit American troops to a shooting war anywhere else, so there was no particular reason for me to include Carter in this cartoon.

Q Toon: The Center for Deforming Arts

Unsatisfied with crowning himself Emperor of the United States and Canada, Donald Joffrey Trump last month executed a hostile takeover of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.

Trump seized control of the Center's board, firing its chair and several members of its board of trustees and its president. In their place, he named himself chairman, and Ric Grenell, who was Ambassador to Germany, Special Envoy to Kosovo and Serbia, and White House liason to the LGB-minus-T community in Trump's first term, the Kennedy Center's president. Attorney General Pam Bondi, musician Lee Greenwood and Trump Chief of Staff Susie Wiles are among the new board members.

Trump, who boycotted all four Kennedy Center Honors award ceremonies during his first term, ostensibly launched his Kennedy Center Coup because a drag performance with the Gay Men's Chorus of Washington D.C. had been scheduled May 21 and 22. Promptly canceling the show, the Philistine in Chief screamposted on Trump Social:

"The Kennedy Center is an American Jewel, and must reflect the brightest STARS on its stage from all across our Nation .... For the Kennedy Center, THE BEST IS YET TO COME!"

Trump's idea of the brightest STARS from all across our Nation? Why, the J6 Insurrectionist Felons Glee Club, of course. And possibly another 39-minute concert from Trump's campaign rally iPod playlist.

In response, several other members of the Center's board quit in protest, including actress-producer Issa Rae and TV producer Shonda Rhimes, and as artistic advisor, musician Ben Folds. Mystery novelist Louise Penny, the cast of "Finn," and and the Alfred Street Baptist Church Christmas Show were among artists announcing that they would cancel their scheduled appearances.

JFK Center ticket sales for remaining shows have plummeted by half. 

It will be interesting to see how the JFK Center's Mark Twain Prize for American Humor ceremony for Conan O'Brien (host of Sunday's Academy Awards) comes off less than a month from today. Given that Trump and his sugar daddy Elon Musk consider themselves hilariously witty, this may be the last Mark Twain award ceremony worth watching for at least four years.

✍

I had some difficulty drawing the bust of Kennedy in this week's cartoon. Trying to depict the rough surface of the bronze casting in pen and ink utterly obscured the facial features. Attempting to portray the bust's texture in Photoshop, first in grayscale and then in color (I provide both versions separately), took hours. 

Later that day, well after I had sent my cartoon to Q Syndicate, I read a column by Jack Ohman about the death of Clint Hill, the last survivor of John and Jacqueline Kennedy's Secret Service detail that fatal day in Dallas. Jack's column includes a graphic description of President Kennedy's assassination, and it occurred to me that my drawing of that bronze bust lying on the floor might be upsetting to readers for reasons I had not intended.

I am not quite old enough to have my own memories of JFK, and most of my editors are even younger. It will be up to them to decide whether or not to print my cartoon, and I will respect their decisions either way.

Readers are likewise free to complain. That's what free speech is all about. 

I only ask that they do not call for a boycotts, firings, and banning my or anyone else's cartoons from syndication. (Or here on Blogger.) That is what cancel culture is all about.

Toons of Thankfulness and Praise

I hope you have saved some room for some leftover Thanksgiving cartoons today. Our Graphical History Tour has whipped up a tasty dish from the editorial and comic pages of 1924.

"Mr. Coolidge Breaks His Silence" by T.H. Webster for N.Y. World's Press Pub. Co., Nov. 27, 1924

Calvin Coolidge, in keeping with longstanding tradition, officially proclaimed that year's national day of Thanksgiving on Thursday, November 27, the last Thursday of the month. The troubled tom in T.H. Webster's cartoon would have waited in vain for a presidential pardon to save him from the butcher's axe.

The tradition of presidents pardoning a turkey or two at Thanksgiving was apparently inaugurated by John F. Kennedy (reports of meleagristic pardons by Abraham Lincoln and Harry Truman are not supported by presidential records). The first official presidential pardon granted to a turkey was by George H.W. Bush in 1989.

"If We All Don't Get Our Share This Year It Won't Be Because the Turkey Isn't Big Enough" by J.N. "Ding" Darling in Des Moines Register, Nov. 27, 1924

Prosperity Triumphant was the theme of editorial cartoons in many a Thanksgiving Day newspaper in 1924. It was the midpoint of the Roaring ’20's, of course. The stock market was booming, employers were hiring, speakeasies were jumping, and flappers were, uh, flapping.

"We Have with Us Today" by William Hanny in Philadelphia Inquirer, Nov. 27, 1924

Republican-leaning editorial cartoonists offered plenty of cartoons for the day crowing that Americans ought to be thankful to reelected President Calvin Coolidge for the apparently robust economy everyone was enjoying. 

"Even They Have Something to Be Thankful For" by Clifford Berryman in Washington Evening Star, Nov. 27, 1924

Democrats and Progressives, on the other hand, were still eating crow, and the editorial cartoonists who had advocated the election of John Davis or Robert LaFollette shied away from political ruminations for the holiday.

The Gumps by Sidney Smith for Chicago Tribune Service, Nov. 27, 1924

Speaking of unsuccessful presidential candidates: Andy Gump — whose campaign manager had neglected to file Gump's candidacy — used the holiday to wax philosophical about his loss.

"Me and Mine" by Clare Briggs for N.Y. Tribune Co., Nov. 27, 1924

Elsewhere on the comics page, even in 1924, one did not necessarily head home for the holidays. The ladies in Clare Briggs's cartoon agreed to disagree over the relative merits of a home-cooked meal and not having to clean up after one.

"Cap Stubbs" by Edwina Dumm for George Matthew Adams Service, Nov. 27, 1924

It has been a long time since our tour has checked in on one of the very few female comic strip artists of the 1920's, so here is Edwina Dumm, presenting her titular "Cap" Stubbs with one of his typical conundra.

"Your Own Nightmare" by Jim Ring in Washington Times, Nov. 27, 1924

Returning to the editorial page: I guess Jim Ring didn't particularly care for the Thanksgiving holiday. Or perhaps being called upon to draw something for the Washington Times editorial page at the last minute because the editors or publisher there didn't care for whatever it was that their usual cartoonist, T.E. Powers, had offered them for the day.

"And Here's Another Problem" by John Knott in Dallas Morning News, ca. Nov. 26, 1924

As if Jim Ring hadn't burdened you with enough Thanksgiving nightmares, along came John Knott to remind us that it's time to flip the page on the calendar.

So therefore we bid you and yule a fond au revoir, a happy post-Thanksgiving, a toilichte St. Andrew's Day, and a merry month to come.

Gobble fa la la: la la la la!

When Jack Met Dick

As you may have heard, there's a presidential debate coming up next week between Vice President Kamala Harris and convicted felon Donald Joffrey Trump; so today's Graphical History Tour travels back to September 26, 1960 and the granddaddy of all presidential debates.

"We Have Temporarily Lost Our Picture" by Joseph Parrish in Chicago Tribune, Sept. 27, 1960

The televised debate between Senator John F. Kennedy and Vice President Richard M. Nixon was precedent-setting. Never before had rival presidential nominees of the two major parties shared a stage face-to-face, answering the same questions and each other.

"News Item" by Vaughn Shoemaker in Chicago Daily News, Sept. 27, 1960

What about the famous Lincoln-Douglas debates, I hear you asking. Or maybe it's just the voices in my head. Either way, yes, a series of debates pitted Abraham Lincoln and Steven Douglas against each other in their race for the U.S. Senate seat from Illinois in 1858, but were not repeated when the two vied for the presidency two years later. 

According to contemporary newspaper accounts, 12,000 attended their first debate at Ottawa, 16,000 to 18,000 in Galesburg, 15,000 in Freeport, 12,000 in Quincy, and 5,000 to 10,000 at the last debate in Alton. Given that hyperbole was not unknown in reporting of the time, Vaughn Shoemaker's head count is probably just as valid as any of the others.

"You Were Simply Wonderful" by Gib Crockett in Washington Star, Sept. 28, 1960

Neither Kennedy nor Nixon delivered any memorable zingers, stumbled into major gaffes, or weaved around aimlessly between child care, tariffs, Marco Rubio and the U.S. being a failing nation at their debate. The Louisville Courier-Journal judged that Nixon "had the more flexible and resonant voice of the two," and that Kennedy "often spoke too rapidly" but "seemed less self-conscious than Nixon." A voter interviewed by the Chicago Tribune said that "Nixon made out a bit stronger case, but I got a better impression of Kennedy than I'd had before this show."

"T-V for Victory" by Jesse Taylor Cargill for Central Press Assn., ca. Sept. 30, 1960

On the other hand, the New York Daily News complained that the debate was "a weak and wishy washy piece of history. Both candidates, we thought, overdid the Alphonse-Gaston politeness." The Sacramento Bee agreed, calling it "more of a polite parlor tete a tete than a debate" and griping, "Kennedy and Nixon stipulated there would be no personalities in the debate. The result was like tossing away half the case for Kennedy." 

"The Winner" by Roy Justus in Minneapolis Star, Sept. 28, 1960

What stuck in the collective memory had more to do with appearances than who made the stronger case for himself. I've heard that television viewers thought that Kennedy "won" the debate, whereas radio listeners tended to find Nixon the winner (which may reflect the age of the respective audiences, too).

Nixon's five-o'clock shadow was only one factor for those who judged by appearances; after all, Herblock had been drawing Nixon with darkened chin and jowls for years. Both candidates declined CBS's offer of make-up; Kennedy's slight suntan photographed well anyway, but Nixon was recovering from a bout of flu that rendered him pale and sweaty. Perhaps more significantly in the Age of Television, whereas Kennedy spoke directly to the camera, Nixon faced the off-camera debate moderators when answering their questions.

"Tongue Smoke" by Frank Miller in Des Moines Register, Sept. 28, 1960

Television being a fairly young medium at the time, several editorial cartoonists drew less inspiration from what the candidates said than where they said it. Frank Miller's cartoon references the number one most popular TV series on the tube in 1960.

"I'm Not Satisfied" by Richard Q. Yardley in Baltimore Sun, Sept. 27, 1960

Still, there were a few cartoonists who dove into the specifics of the debate. Nixon, of course, promised that his policies would continue the post-war economic growth the nation had experienced during (most of) the Eisenhower administration. Kennedy promised that he could do better.

I guess Nikita Khruschev and Mao Zedong are peeking from behind the wall in Yardley's cartoon as an acknowledgement that although this first debate centered on domestic issues, foreign policy would be the focus of a future debate between the candidates.

"The Debate—American Style and Russian" by Carey Orr in Chicago Tribune, Sept. 29, 1960

Carey Orr couldn't wait, taking the occasion to remind his readers that the U.S.S.R. had brutally suppressed an anti-Soviet rebellion in Hungary four summers earlier.

Bill Mauldin in St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Sept. 28, 1960

Bill Mauldin highlighted promises by both candidates to replace Secretary of Agriculture Ezra Taft Benson. Benson's opposition to price supports and government agriculture subsidies won him few friends among farmers, who you might expect would be a key constituency of the Department of Agriculture. As a cleric on the Mormon Church's Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, moreover, his appointment had been opposed by the American Council of Churches, which viewed his church as a anti-Christian cult. (Some of them had the same opinion of Kennedy's Roman Catholic faith.)

Benson had served as Secretary of Agriculture for all eight years of Dwight Eisenhower's presidency, however, so it was extremely unlikely that he would continue in the post beyond January, 1961 in any event.

"Critic" by Bill Sanders in Greensboro (NC) Daily News, Sept. 28, 1960

And that takes care of the Cartoons About Substance. Bill Sanders returns us to the historical significance of the Democratic and Republican presidential candidates appearing together on the telly.

"Don't All Come at Once" by Franklin Morse in Los Angeles Mirror, Sept. 27, 1960

I was surprised to find that some cartoonists didn't bother to draw about the Kennedy-Nixon debate at all that week. There was, however, plenty of other material for a cartoonist to work with.

The United Nations General Assembly was held that week, witnessing Soviet First Secretary Nikita Khruschev pounding his shoe on the podium and calling for the firing of U.N. Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjold. Third World leaders denounced Western colonialism; the harangue by Fidel Castro, barely into his second year as Prime Minister of Cuba, lasted four-hours.

Meanwhile, the space exploration program of the U.S. was struggling to catch up to that of the U.S.S.R. No manned space flights had taken place yet — just dogged, monkeyed, moused, rabbited, and fruit flied ones. Russia was first to send satellites into Earth orbit and probes to the moon; the U.S. had experienced mixed success with both efforts.

"What Are You Fellows Arguing About" by Hugh Haynie in Louisville Courier-Journal, Sept. 27, 1960

And, of course, there was baseball for anyone bored by national, global, and extraterrestrial affairs.

"What Do You Suppose Happened After the Debate Went Off the Air" by Frank Interlandi for Register and Tribune Syndicate, Sept. 27, 1960

Nixon and Kennedy met for three more debates before the election, on October 7, 13, and 21.

After that, there would be a 16-year hiatus, including two more Nixon election campaigns, before candidates for president would meet for another debate.

Aside from That, Mrs. McKinley, How Was the Expo?

This coming week marks the 120th anniversary of the assassination of President William McKinley. I will admit that vinticentennials tend to get overlooked, and McKinley's is generally ranked in the middle of U.S. administrations. But without McKinley's assassination, instead of ending up on Mt. Rushmore, Teddy Roosevelt would probably have languished in the obscurity endured by most vice presidents from Daniel Tompkins to Alben Barkley.

Besides, I have no idea whether I'll still feel like keeping up this Saturday history schtick for another five years for when the quasquicentennial comes around.

"Night at the Pan-American" by Lucius Hitchcock in Harper's Weekly, September 7, 1901

To refresh your American History 101, McKinley was shot by anarchist Leon Czolgosz at the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, New York, on September 6, 1901.

"Put Me Off at Buffalo" by Rowland C. Bowman in Minneapolis Tribune, May, 1901

The Pan-American Exposition was a chance for the U.S., fresh off its victory in the Spanish-American War, to show off to the world, and President McKinley had every intention of milking it for all it was worth. 

The previous decade had witnessed a wave of assassinations by anarchists in Europe: President Marie François Sadi Carnot of France in 1894; Prime Minister Antonio Cánovas del Castillo of Spain in 1897; Empress Elizabeth of Austria in 1898; and King Umberto I of Italy in 1900. Because of this, McKinley's personal secretary, George Cortelyou, twice tried to take shaking hands with the public off McKinley's schedule. Having had to cancel a "President's Day" appearance at the Exposition in May when his wife took ill, however, McKinley insisted on getting to press the flesh on September 5 and 6.

"My Harp Is Also Turned to Mourning..." by Gennette (?) in Brooklyn Daily Eagle, September 7, 1901

Fired up by the speeches of anarchist Emma Goldman, Czolgosz decided on September 3 to assassinate McKinley. He was unable to get close enough to shoot McKinley at the Exposition on September 5, but returned the next day with his gun concealed in a cloth rag, and waited in the president's receiving line until he was right up in front of his target. He fired two shots at point blank range before he was wrestled to the ground.

"One Bandage Too Many" by Gennette in Brooklyn Daily Eagle, September 8, 1901

I'm having to guess at this Brooklyn Daily Eagle cartoonist's name from his signature alone. Whether the name begins with a J or a G, I have not come across any information about him.

"Why Not Make This a Law, Uncle" by Gennette in Brooklyn Eagle, September 10, 1901

This is a peculiar cartoon: to nobody's surprise, Czolgosz would be executed for his crime before the end of October, so what difference would making "an attack upon the President, the Vice President or any member of the Cabinet... treason punishable with death"?

In part, the Brooklyn Eagle was arguing in favor of making attempted assassination of officials of the executive branch a federal crime. Czolgosz would be tried and executed by the State of New York, in whose jurisdiction the crime took place. (Assassination of the president or vice president was not made a federal crime until after John Kennedy's assassination in 1963.)

"At the Threshold" by Wm. A. Rogers in Harper's Weekly, September 14, 1901

 

As McKinley lay in hospital for several days, cartoonists for the weekly newspapers had the difficult task of eulogizing him in case he died, without pronouncing him dead in case he didn't.

Indeed, banner headlines on September 11 proclaimed McKinley's recovery from his injuries.

"The Crisis Passed" by Felix Mahony in Washington (DC) Evening Star, September 11, 1901

Was he really going to make it? Tune in next Saturday to find out!

(Spoiler alert: I've already told you.)