Facing the Candidate

The most tellin<< comment on any editorial page is often contained in a brief line that emphasizes a chin, droops an eyelid or curves a mouth. Under the pen of a skilled cartoonist, a man's face can become a political comment, and Barry Goldwater has a face that most cartoonists find a delight to limn.

"It's hard to go wrong on that face," says the Baltimore Evening Sun's Cartoonist Tom Flannery. "It has the look of one of those things on Mount Rushmore." Adds the Washington Star's John Berryman, who has been sketching Presidents since Calvin Coolidge: "Goldwater is perfect to draw. The glasses, of course, are his trademark, but he also has strong facial characteristics -- a flat mouth, pearl-grey hair, a strong jaw and high cheekbones." Berryman, who tries "not to be vicious toward candidates," has so far produced the best Goldwater likeness.

Caveman Drawing. What a cartoonist draws is inevitably colored by what he feels, and the feelings of many a cartoonist are even plainer to detect than those of their like-minded colleagues at typewriters in the newsroom. The Washington Post's Herblock draws Goldwater with a snarling lip, but says: "I think he's so bad all you have to do is to picture him as he is." Paul Conrad of the Los Angeles Times also claims, "I don't put in any more than I see." What he sees is a jutting jaw and a vacant, bewildered face. The Atlanta Constitution's Clifford Baldowski gives Goldwater frazzled hair "going off in all directions like the wild man he is."

The Boston Traveler's Jim Dobbins, who sketches a scrawny Barry, says, "I like to show him as a weakling." Such strident convictions can dim a man's appreciation for his own art. "I'm not happy with my Goldwater," says the Miami News's Don Wright, "but then I'm not happy with Goldwater, period."

Humor Is No Vice. There are a few, though, who look at the G.O.P. candidate from another angle. The Philadelphia Inquirer's Hugh Hutton accents Goldwater's forehead and sharpens his nose to give him "the perceptive look of a man who knows what he is doing."

Hank Barrow of the Omaha WorldHerald emphasizes Goldwater's square jaw and set mouth to give an impression of resoluteness. Bill Mauldin of Chicago's Sun-Times takes an evenhanded position. Although critical of Goldwater's politics, he draws the candidate with a broken nose and high forehead to convey a synthesis of the thoughtful man of action. Mauldin's philosophy: "You portray a guy for what he is, not what you think of his politics."

The most striking feature about all the attempts to portray Barry is that none of the cartoonists has yet drawn a face that reflects any really successful attempt at humor. Perhaps the reasons are the seriousness of the political argument and the strong emotional response that Goldwater evokes. Yet a moderate amount of humor in the exercise of cartooning is certainly no vice, and a total absence of it might become extremely intolerable.

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