CBI Archive
Snark Blocker - Herblock Takes on Every President Since Hoover!
- by Brian Cronin
- in Snark Blocker
Tuesday, October 7th, 2008 at 7:00 AM EST
Updated: Tuesday, October 7th, 2008 at 2:48 PM EST
Herb “Herblock” Block had just so many great comic strips I could not fit them all in, and one thing I ended up omitting was the fact that, due to his longevity, the man produced cartoons caricaturing every United States President since Herbert Hoover!!
I figured, though, that that was far too cool NOT to mention, so, well, here ya go!
Enjoy the following comics of each President since Hoover…
Here is a two-fer, Hoover AND Franklin Delano Roosevelt…
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Before the 1948 election, things were not looking good for Harry S. Truman when a bunch of Southern Democrats split off to form their own party under Henry Wallace.
So Herblock drew Truman as though he was one of the doomed troops in Alfred Tennyson’s The Charge of the Light Brigade.
Of course, Truman ended up having a better ending than they did…
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Herblock does not treat Eisenhower too fondly here…
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Here, Herblock depicts how Kennedy’s grand plans were stalled by Congress’ unwillingness to act - it was not until after JFK’s assassination that much of his ideas were put into law by Congress…
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Herblock shows LBJ reeling from the fact that Everett Dirksen, the Republican Minority Leader of the Senate and a close ally of Johnson (from Johnson’s past in the Senate) especially with regards to escalation of the Vietnam War, turned on Johnson for his handling of the Vietnam War…
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I don’t think this Nixon one needs explanation…
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Barry Goldwater gave a very lukewarm recommendation of Gerald Ford for the Republican National Convention, saying that he was endorsing Ford because “the fact that at this time in our history I do not believe that our government can suffer through months and months of reorganization that [would] be necessary” if Ford lost.
Harsh.
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This Carter one is fairly explicit - Carter was trying to fix his public persona as indecisive…
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This Reagan one is pretty self-explanatory…
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As is this Bush the First one…
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So’s this Clinton one, really…
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And finally, during the 2000 Election Campaign, here’s Bush the Second…
Herblock’s final cartoon (drawn at the age of 91, mere months before his death) was also a Dubya caricature.
So there you go!
Pretty cool, huh?
7 Comments
Blackjak
October 7, 2008 at 7:26 am
Love ‘em!
I’m really enjoying this series, thank you Brian!
Oh, and I think you must be getting tired… “Herd “Herbert” Block”…
Nick Evans
October 7, 2008 at 10:21 am
Excellent stuff. The Light Brigade’s “charge” actually existed, mind, so I’m not sure it’s quite right to describe them as Tennyson’s. Cardigan was the chap in charge.
Jeff Ryan
October 7, 2008 at 11:03 am
Herblock’s Eisenhower is just adorable.
Ariel S.
October 7, 2008 at 11:08 am
As a foreign reader, I find each entry on this list a discovery, since I haven’t even heard of them before. It’s not only nice, but also quite educational. I think comic strips are the best way to measure the sociopolitical “temperature” of any period in history, and these are greats examples of that. Thanks for sharing this!
Dan K
October 7, 2008 at 11:54 am
Why is Elliot Gould fixing Jimmy Carter’s TV? I love his depiction of LBJ but that Clinton cartoon is the best of the bunch imo as it wonderfully sums up the entire tone of his presidency (I love the crowd of smiling onlookers).
dantecat
October 7, 2008 at 12:28 pm
There’s a Herblock retrospective at the National Portait Gallery in Washington, DC going on right now. It’s adjacent to the permanent, complete collection of US Presidential portraits. I was just there this past weekend on vacation - awesome stuff.
Apodaca
October 7, 2008 at 5:12 pm
Man, he was good. I love the caption “National Security-Blanket”.