I have posted this thread, as well as others which you will find bookmarked at my profile page, as a resource to be used in the political discussion here at Free Republic.
As for his being a liberal icon, he's far from it. Ask any university poly sci professor and he'll probably characterize Hobbes as being right-wing. But its easy to find parallels in what he says and modern liberal thinking, just like Mien Kamp sometimes sounds like it was published by the DNC even though they like to refer to Conservatives as Nazis.