CLEANUP TIME

IN THE WAKE of the election, artists
needed to find acceptable ways to repre-
sent this president, who functioned as the
repository of so many people’s hopes and
expectations. Bob Staake painted him as
a paper doll that could be dressed either
as an angel—complete with halo and
harp, or as the devil—with horns and tri-
dent (right). Anita Kunz sketched Obama
inheriting eight years of Republican mess
(below)—but it simply was not justifiable
to show our first black president as a jani-
tor. Barry Blitt’s sketch of Bush handing
Obama the keys to a totally wrecked car
(opposite) came close to being approved—
till we realized that the setting could be
seen as showing the new president in the
position of a parking attendant. Still,
Blitt observed, “You can’t concentrate on
Obama’s blackness—I mean he’s a less
black president than Bill Clinton was.”

BOB STAAKE ALSO TRIED mocking
Obama for his smoking habit (which the
president reportedly had trouble giving up)
(left), but then we saw a hyperrealistic car-
toon of the very same idea on the cover of
MAD magazine (above).

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