The Story Behind Political Cartooning

Politico cartoonist Matt Wuerker, who won the 2012 Pulitzer Prize for editorial cartoons,  has a theory about people, presidents, and political cartoons. It goes like this. When presidents first get elected, they are given a honeymoon period by the cartoonists who will spend the next 4 (and, in some cases, 8) years drawing them. At first, all the new presidents look like strong-jawed, young John Kennedys. But quickly, the exaggerations creep in. It may be the ears. Or the eyes. Or the nose. Cartoonists study fellow cartoonists. Soon, a consensus develops about how the president should look, a consensus that becomes embedded in the popular mind.

With pen in his left hand and plain white drawing paper on an easel in front of him, Wuerker, who appeared at the Newseum yesterday to discuss his art, tested his theory on the crowd that had come to hear him. In less than 4 seconds and with only a few strokes, the audience correctly identified Bill Clinton. George W. Bush took slightly longer. It was about 6 seconds until it was obvious that Wuerker was sketching Barack Obama.

"Isn't that weird," he said, pointing to the few strokes he had made on the paper. "You get from here to Barack Obama. But we've all been trained, right?"

A Sample of Wuerker's Work

Wuerker said simple pictures of cartoons do seem to have a deep effect on people, often more than the word-filled news stories, columns, and editorials that surround them. He said that may have something to do with the primal  power of the visual. Contending that cave painters were really the first cartoonists, he said "what I do today is not that much different than those guys."

He added that good political cartoons might also benefit from their simplicity. "People can get these really fast," he said. "It doesn't require a lot of reading."

The cartoonist, who has been working in the field for 25 years and describes himself as old school, said he is concerned about a modern media that seems to be providing "a lot of heat and not much light."

"I sort of miss the old days of Walter Cronkite. The shouting and the noise (in political rhetoric and on the internet and cable news) has completely overshadowed the calm, the cool, and the rationale," Wuerker said. "When people go to the circus, they want to see the freak show and that seems to be working really well right now with news."

Wuerker displayed several of his creations, including one entitled Ye Olde Fearmongering Shoppe, which poked fun at "a media driven by fear and anxiety."

There are hot button topics that Wuerker said he knows will draw response from viewers such as Israel, abortion, and Pentagon spending. Weurker said changes in technology have made it easy for readers and viewers to reply to what they object to. "When I started (with the administration of Jimmy Carter) you had to type out a letter, then get a stamp, and then mail it. Now, with the internet, comments are fast and furious," he said.

Wuerker said although his final product is visual, much of his time is spent reading widely to determine both his subject and his approach. "I have a noon deadline and panic starts to set in around 10:30," he noted.  He added that, like all cartoonists, he would like to create work that would last, but sometimes it's better to try "to put your finger on the thing that everyone is thinking about that day. Often, it's a subconscious process."

Even as a youngster, Wuerker enjoyed cartoons and cartooning. He began editorial cartooning in 7th grade with some really rudimentary offerings. "One of the best things about getting the Pulitzer is that I got a letter from my 8th grade journalism teacher," Wuerker said.

A self-described liberal, Wuerker said that he is expected to take a stand in his work. "I don't need to be fair and balanced. I have a point of view and my cartoons are when I get to express it," he said.

Tales, Tidbits, and Tips
Of course, Wuerker was asked as a cartoonist if he hoped Obama or GOP challenger Mitt Romney would win in November. He declined to answer. "It's strange," he said. "There's what's good for the country and then there is what's good for the cartoonist. Let's say if Newt Gingrich had been elected, the next 4 years would have been really easy."