KANSAS CITY, Mo. – It’s not exactly “DEWEY DEFEATS TRUMAN,” but some newspaper editors are pondering how to deal with a “Doonesbury” comic strip to be published the day after the election that assumes Barack Obama will win the presidency.
Comic creator Garry Trudeau delivered a series of strips for next week’s papers showing his characters reacting to an Obama victory. But he offered no such option in the event of a comeback by John McCain, who’s trailing Obama in the polls.
Trudeau’s syndicator is offering papers a series of rerun strips from August. But the Obama story line is forcing some editors to question whether “Doonesbury” could put them in a spot – albeit in the funny pages – similar to 1948, when the Chicago Daily Tribune infamously declared in huge, front-page type that Republican Thomas Dewey had beaten Democrat Harry Truman for the presidency.
The strip shows three soldiers watching TV and reacting to this announcement: “And it’s official – Barack Obama has won … Making him the first African-American president in history!”
“Hoo-Ah!” one of the soldiers says.
“Son of a gun! What a great, great day! We did it!” another soldier says.
“He’s half-white, you know,” says a white soldier.
“You must be so proud,” responds a soldier, who isn’t white.