Cartoon Characters Who Ran for President, Part Eight

Now that the election is over, the fighting can stop, right?   Not a chance.  We here at the JoeFood Blog still have hopes that once the recounts are complete, one of our candidates may edge out the other two.  Here's my last entry in this series; the I Go Pogo campaign,

Part Eight:  I Go Pogo!

In the 1950's Pogo was fast becoming one of the most popular and controversial comic strips in the history of the medium.   For the uninitiated, Pogo is a quiet, unassuming possum, a denizen of the Okefenokee Swamp.  The swamp is inhabited by numerous other critters to numerous to list here, but just this piece of art below may give you an idea.  Walt Kelly, an ex-Disney animator, was the creator.

The comic strip did not start out as controversial, but as it went on the satire got heavier and and more pointed.    On May 1, 1953, Pogo hit the ceiling with the introduction of Simple J. Malarkey, a polecat with a marked resemblance to Senator Joseph McCarthy.  McCarthy was in the midst of his anti-communism crusade at the time that caused many people in the public eye to be blacklisted (see "McCarthyism").   This sequence of strips were censured by many newspapers but began Kelley's practice of bringing political figures into the swamp in animal form.   Eventually you would see Spiro Agnew (a hyena), Richard Nixon (a spider), Khrushchev (a pig), Fidel Castro (a goat), J. Edgar Hoover ( a bulldog), and Lyndon Johnson (a longhorn steer), appear in the swamp.

All of this made Pogo a favorite comic strip on the college campuses.  In 1952 the first "Pogo for President" campaign began in the strip.  Pogo himself was a very reluctant candidate, not even realizing that the swamp had designated him their candidate until weeks after the announcement.  The campaign slogan was I GO POGO, a parody of the I LIKE IKE slogan for the Eisenhower campaign.  The campaign took off, and across the country several colleges held I GO POGO rallies.   One rally at Harvard got completely out of hand; at the end of it all some 1000 students had rioted and 28 students were arrested.  Walt Kelly was a featured speaker at several colleges and helped spread the word about Pogo's campaign.

  

The swamp critters themselves ran Pogo's campaign while Pogo tried in vain to ignore their work.   One of the better slogans they devised was "Pogo's for President and I'm for vice!"

Polling was also a big part of the campaign:

Pogo was run again in 1956, this time with the backing of a great campaign song sung by Kelly himself and relesed on the album Songs of the Pogo.  One of the greatest political songs of all time - once you hear it you'll never forget the words.  You can give it a play below.  Fortunately for the reluctant candidate he did not win either election despite getting hundreds of write-in votes.

Cartoon Characters Who Ran for President, Part Seven: Assorted others

Seems like, at one time or another, any cartoon character that owned a hat threw it into the ring during one presidential contest or another.   Today, let's look at several that never got farther than a few merchandise opportunities:

Bozo the Clown:

Yep, Bozo, the World's Most Famous Clown (according to his own publicity) ran for president in 1984, under the slogan "Put a real Bozo in the White House."   This campaign got as far as a press conference and some buttons and bumper stickers.   Bozo actually had some contacts - he claims he was actually contacted by John F. Kennedy in the 1960's to be part of a national safety campaign but Kennedy's assassination ended the project.

Snoopy:

Never got past some buttons and stickers, usually found in Dolly Madison snack cakes or Weber's bread, and a campaign song.  It's a shame, as Snoopy was not only a World War I veteran (fighting against the Red Baron) but worked with NASA as a safety mascot for the moon landings.   In fact, Snoopy even flew into space - in 1969, the lunar module on Apollo 10 was named Snoopy.   

Alfred E. Newman:

In 2016, Candidate Donald Trump compared Democratic contender Pete Buttigieg to MAD Magazine mascot Alfred E. Neuman.   This was not Alfred's first foray into politics.   Alfred E Neuman ran for president for several years in the magazine's heyday and was a favorite candidate of many high school and college kids, most of which were too young to vote.  You have to love a candidate that can come up with such great talking points as:

• America is on the brink of ruin - Let Alfred finish the job!
• At least he's honest about his idiocy!
• Amid the uncertainty - a voice of confusion!
• If voting could really change things, it would be illegal.
• What - Me Worry?

Dogbert:

Dogbert, from the Dilbert comic strip, was a canine candidate in at least 1992 and 2008.  Probably one of the scariest candidates to ever run for office.

Brain (From Pinky and the Brain)

Pinky and the Brain is the story of two lab mice who, in each episode, execute a nearly-flawless plan for world takeover...   Nearly flawless, as something always stops them at the brink of achieving their goal.   In Meet John Brain, the Brain decides to "play the world's game, politics" and helms a nearly successful campaign for the presidency.  Unfortunately he becomes so overtaken by his popularity that he insists that his public meet him in person.  Once the public discovers he's a mouse, well, it's time to plan for tomorrow night.   Here's a clip from Meet John Brain:

One more entry to go - the story of the little possum from the Okefenokie who jumped in the ring and fell hard!  Tune in later this week!