Life — January 22, 1920 — page 8: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

# "Our Presidential Department" — Life Magazine Satire This page satirizes the 1912 presidential election cycle by publishing absurd application letters from ordinary citizens claiming qualifications for the presidency. The applicants boast of modest accomplishments—building a coal business, maintaining income within fifty thousand annually—as if these credentials suited them for high office. The cartoon below depicts a woman on a train rejecting romantic attention with the dismissive line: "Don't you ever read the papers?" She claims to have read nothing but love letters and checks for four years—suggesting she's entirely removed from current events and news, making her perfectly unqualified (and thus humorously ideal) for the presidency. The satire mocks both actual candidates' actual qualifications and public indifference to politics.