Things were all a-twitter in the Features Department where I work last Friday. Why? Because Gary Trudeau had decided to predict a victory for Barack Obama in Tuesday’s election:
Wednesday’s strip is set in Iraq and features military characters huddled around a television that proclaims “And it’s official — Barack Obama has won. . . .”
In an e-mail to The Times, Trudeau said newspapers should run the strip because “. . . polling data gives McCain a 3.7% chance of victory. There’s a greater risk that their presses will break down on election day. So I’ve been encouraging editors to choose hope over fear. And reminding them that if I’m wrong, it’ll be my face that’ll be covered with egg, not theirs.”
As a result, a number of daily newspapers that carry Trudeau’s strip had to quickly decide whether to run the strip or substitute it for reruns (from this past summer). And no, I’m not telling you what the Patriot-News decided. Go buy a copy of the paper.
Meanwhile, the John McCain camp responded by stating “We hope the strip proves to be as predictive as it is consistently lame.”
You can read more on the story here, here, here, here and here. Oh, and be sure to read this post by News & Record’s John Robinson, where he wonders what all the fuss is about anyway.
November 2nd, 2008 at 11:18 pm
“We”? I don’t know, sounds kind of egotistical. As if Doonesbury is the deciding factor. Should Mallard Fillmore claim victory if McCain wins?
November 2nd, 2008 at 11:47 pm
“We hope the strip proves to be as predictive as it is consistently lame.”
Don’t you love sentences that actually say the opposite of what they were clearly intended to convey? I do!
November 3rd, 2008 at 9:04 am
Dewey defeats Truman!
November 3rd, 2008 at 11:16 am
Still possible, but unlikely Frederick…
Funny, I was going to say that I find the McCain campaign’s response to be “as predcitABLE as it is consistently lame.” Is it any wonder they’ve imploded, and will (likely) lose tomorrow? McCain’s best chance comes down to how many swing states have touch-screen voting, with machines provided by Dibold.
November 3rd, 2008 at 2:33 pm
There is a “C” in Barack Obama’s name.
November 3rd, 2008 at 2:34 pm
Does the McCain camp include Doonesbury’s strips focused on the injured Iraq war veteran part of the consistency of lameness?
November 3rd, 2008 at 4:25 pm
You mean the ones in the book The Long Road Home, with the foreword by Senator John McCain? Those strips?