Partisan Mistake in Sunday's Doonesbury

[Schuck]

Re: Sunday's Doonesbury column (2/10/02)--does anyone want to tell Gary Trudeau Teddy Roosevelt was a Republican, not a Democrat? Another Liberal playing fast and loose with the facts.

[js1138]

Any internet links available, or at least a description of the strip?

[Texaggie79]

link?.........

[dts32041]

Why? Whenever has the truth mattered to Mr. Jane Pauley?

[Temple Owl]

Just ignore him! Maybe he'll go away. He is doing us a favor by losing the rags that run him more circulation every day.

[Texaggie79]

[CounterCounterCulture]

Cartoon here

It was the thought balloon of the Republican in the strip and I think he was trying to portray him as an ignorant knee-jerk. I could be wrong though. It's scary to try to get in the head of such a dope as Trudeau.

[DLfromthedesert]

Not Trudeau's mistake; it was to make the "Conservative" guy look stupid.

[End Times Sentinel]

Fact? Not familiar with that word. I’ll need to consult my liberal dictionary… farce… fascist… fool… food stamps… nope. It’s not in there. You must have made it up. Oh yeah, you racist.

Owl _ Eagle
“Guns before butter.”

[Texaggie79]

What sucks is, if our public was educated, this would be hilarious, as Gary would be ousted as an idiot. However, I bet most readers will not know.

[Texaggie79]

I just figured that out. lol

[CounterCounterCulture]

Yup, looks like we're on the same wavelength.

[Hogrepub]

He was making fun of Bush's intellect. Its gotta hurt to be a member of the liberal elite right now since Bush has taken such a hard stand on right and wrong and the public has responded with high approval ratings. Exposes them and the Clinton years as the frauds that they are. Jokes like these are the only thing they have to attack and these will backfire.

[First_Salute]

It's actually part of the new liberals' schtick, the mythology they are building around Teddy Rooselvelt's interest in land conservation. They are gearing up to quote him as a "Thomas Jefferson" of the environmental movement, in an attempt to prove that long ago, people were willing to give up their property for the good of ________ .

Teddy is being introduced more and more, into the environ-weenies' "Echo-System" ... what they call "the dialog."

Just as Thomas Jefferson is all you need to know (that old letter from 1806) whereby he separated the church and state, we will now be entertained by Teddy Roosevelt's notations.

God rest our Constitution, for it has been replaced by the Select Readings from Liberals' Classical Studies of Social Like-Minded-ness (what "the left" {when in public} refers to as the "contemporary constitution").

[gfactor]

Re: Sunday's Doonesbury column (2/10/02)--does anyone want to tell Gary Trudeau Teddy Roosevelt was a Republican, not a Democrat? Another Liberal playing fast and loose with the facts.

if you pay attention you'll notice that its a thought baloon coming from the white house. the entire joke depends on people knowing that TR was a repub. chill out.

[ctonious]

Trudeau was definitely insinuating that Bush thought that that particular Roosevelt was a Democrat. As opposed to the one that practically ordered the Pacific Navy to do an about face from an inevitable Japanese attack - to get enough casualties to ensure that a freshly outraged American public overcomes it's antiwar stance.

There's nothing like being a Democrat President, who can play Godlike with the lowly mortals - and where the means just never seem to matter - as long as the end seems flowery enough.

[Lancey Howard]

No, the part about "A Democrat. Figures." was the punchline, as it were. Trudeau may be a hand-wringing liberal scumbag, but he's mediocre. Frankly, I am amazed that the guy is still hanging on. I remember reading Doonesbury in college, early '70s, when the strip was fresh and often funny.

I think the point Trudeau is attempting to make in today's strip is that the public needs to remain vigilant and unafraid to criticize its government if criticism is warranted. The problem Trudeau has is that Bush is handling his job impeccably and nearly everybody knows it. Trudeau is a bitter, partisan malcontent who wants Bush to be criticized, simply for the sake of Bush being criticized. Distortion, or even bald fabrication, in order to do that would be just fine and dandy with Garry.

[paolop]

Or was it the Bull Moose party?

[x]

It does look like the balloon is coming from the White House, probably to represent President Bush. Remember Trudeau can't draw actual people.

And if what's on my monitor is representative he has real trouble with his coloring too. His palate is enough to make one queasy.

But there may still be a partisan mistake in the comic. What were the circumstances under which Roosevelt made this quote?

I suspect it was part of an attack on Woodrow Wilson, for not being bellicose enough during the early days of the First World War.

One could come up with some damning quotes from TR against pacifists, slackers, peaceniks, etc.

[The Old Hoosier]

It's a JOKE people. The idea is that Bush, listening to the radio show, THINKS Teddy R was a dem.

Of course, the fact that Bush has been reading TR's bio won't stop Trudeau, who's still convinced that the man's a simpleton. Well, fine. The dumber they call him, the better he does.