Report to Readers: The case of the unpublished cartoon
Elections always come with regrets. Politicians who lose often obsess over missed opportunities to connect with voters. For me, Tuesday’s election results meant we were unable to publish a terrific cartoon from Mike Marland.
On Tuesday morning, Marland sent us six different toons, hoping that at least one of them would work in Wednesday’s election edition of the Monitor. There was one about the Tea Party gaining more control of the New Hampshire House. There was one about the Tea Party losing control. There was a Barack Obama victory and a Mitt Romney victory. The one we chose to use was about Maggie Hassan’s win in the governor’s race. That race was called early in the evening, so the cartoon was a safe bet at mid-evening as we were putting the Opinion pages together.
But of all Marland’s offerings, the cartoon I liked best imagined an election that gave us Ovide Lamontage as governor and Bill O’Brien as speaker of the House. (In Marland’s view, what a nightmare.) Neither of those things, as it turns out, came to pass. But if they had, the attached cartoon would have been just perfect.
I had at least one other regret Tuesday: I spent two hours that evening writing a just-in-case editorial that started like this: “Congratulations, Mr. Romney.” Wasted time, as it turned out. The editorial wasn’t nearly as good as Marland’s unpublished cartoon. No need to show it to you now.
On Tuesday morning, Marland sent us six different toons, hoping that at least one of them would work in Wednesday’s election edition of the Monitor. There was one about the Tea Party gaining more control of the New Hampshire House. There was one about the Tea Party losing control. There was a Barack Obama victory and a Mitt Romney victory. The one we chose to use was about Maggie Hassan’s win in the governor’s race. That race was called early in the evening, so the cartoon was a safe bet at mid-evening as we were putting the Opinion pages together.
But of all Marland’s offerings, the cartoon I liked best imagined an election that gave us Ovide Lamontage as governor and Bill O’Brien as speaker of the House. (In Marland’s view, what a nightmare.) Neither of those things, as it turns out, came to pass. But if they had, the attached cartoon would have been just perfect.
I had at least one other regret Tuesday: I spent two hours that evening writing a just-in-case editorial that started like this: “Congratulations, Mr. Romney.” Wasted time, as it turned out. The editorial wasn’t nearly as good as Marland’s unpublished cartoon. No need to show it to you now.
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