Presidents' Doodlings Unlock Universe's Secrets

The best of us, pencil in hand, paper within reach, will doodle from time to time. This rule applies across all classes and occupations. Presidents are no exception, including LBJ:

Johnson frequently drew scribbles over the words "The White House" that adorned the top of his stationery.

. . . .

"The Johnson under the strain of Vietnam and the party turning on him was a man full of anger and resentment. And there are times he drew bars over the words 'White House,'" [historian David] Greenberg said.

"It's going too far to say he saw the White House as a prison, but certainly by the end of his presidency he was unhappy there."

When Bob Dylan said "even the President of the United States some times must have to stand naked," he didn't suggest that the President draw himself naked, but that's what Ike did:

On one memo with the heading "Cabinet Paper — Privileged," he covers a third of the page — including text about the executive branch's transportation responsibilities — with a massive pencil sketch of his head, with hair.

Another memo outlining the agenda for "The Legislative Leadership Conference, Monday June 28, 1954" is scribbled over with a gunboat and a rendering of himself with huge muscles, a bare chest, thick hair, and a much younger face.

And perhaps the most bizarre are JFK's strange, seemingly precient obessive schoolgirl scribblings:

In another Kennedy doodle with seeming modern-day relevance, he wrote "9/11" repeatedly and the word "conspiracy" next to it.

Link (via Fark). I'll leave that last one out of context for dramatic effect.

Indexed by tags politics, president, doodle, Lyndon Johnson, Dwight Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy, 9/11, conspiracy.
Image Credits: WWI Propaganda Poster, Norman Lindsay, courtesy Bibliodyssey, borrowed for news-reporting and comment purposes.