Mr Thing? Oh dear, that makes Swampy sound like a euphemism in a old-fashioned British sex comedy (a genre that was rarely sexy and only intermittently funny).

I can see it now; Barbara Windsor as Abigail Arcane, Sid James as Swamp Thing. Carry On Up the Bayou perhaps? "ooh, that's a big tuber! tee hee hee".

AARGH!
Adam Horovitz | Email | 11.20.08 - 2:06 am | #

Look, I'm sorry, but I admit the only reason I voted for Swamp Thing was because he was green.

Its time for a change, people.
GQ | Email | 11.20.08 - 4:50 am | #

I think the Sluggo campaign is going to need a scapegoat on which to blame this embarrassing failure. The most obvious choice is Nancy, whose controversial selection as his running mates left many baffled, given her constant state of confusion and inability to answer reporters' questions in a coherent, intelligent manner. Had Sluggo chosen Oona Goosepimple as his running mate, things might have gone differently, but with Nancy on the ticket, many voters saw the Smith/[last name unknown] ballot as one representing "more of the same." This helped ensure the Green Party's landslide victory, leaving Sluggo bogged down in the muck and mire of defeat. In short, he was swamped by his opponent.
Rich Handley | Email | Homepage | 11.20.08 - 5:03 am | #

Sluggo demands a recount!!!!!

(if only he knew how to count)
Richard J. Marcej | 11.20.08 - 7:10 am | #

You've got me really curious now--has Sluggo's last name actually been mentioned at some point? Or are you just guessing?
david z. | Email | 11.20.08 - 7:20 am | #

Sluggo would have been too old to serve out his first term. Plus, that hat.

(Now that we have the first African-American President, i wonder how long it will be until we have the first Plant Elemental President?)
rob! | Email | Homepage | 11.20.08 - 7:26 am | #

Well, I didn't vote for him. :-/

But I'll hope he can bring us all together anyway.

I'm just more of a Sluggo guy, I guess. I don't see him giving a McCain class concession speech, though.
rlsims | Email | 11.20.08 - 8:27 am | #

While I admit Sluggo's choice of Nancy as his running mate was controversial, I supported his choice because, while not comfortable answering the media's questions, Nancy has a long history of popular support in America. One might do well to ask where the Swamp Thing was 40 years ago? I know where Sluggo and Nancy were (in the hearts of all Americans), but he seems to have come out of nowhere, and I for one am afraid we are going to find out the Swamp Thing has some dark secrets that would have been nice to know about before he was elected.

This, of course, over and beyond his known associations with a global government of non-humans who have expressed nothing but distain for our national sovereignty, his interstellar travels to Rann, the home of interplanetary terrorists (and known human abductors), and his... colorful offspring.

While I am proud to see America finally elect a non-human, I wish it was a different non-human (like we had the chance to do in 1996 when Superman ran on a compassionate conservative platform in the Republican primaries until his unfortunate "blue" incident took him out of the race). Oh well. This is just one more good reason why our electoral collage system needs to be reformed.
Steve Canadian | Email | 11.20.08 - 8:31 am | #

If only our election cycle were this brief.
philip | 11.20.08 - 8:37 am | #

I think you raise some salient points about Swamp Thing's murky past, Steve. His arrival on the scene seems to have coincided with the mysterious death of Dr. Alec Holland, and no one has yet offered me a satisfactory explanation as to what actually happened to Holland that day.

Did he die? Did his soul go to Heaven? Did it remain on Earth, haunting the swamp? Was it ultimately reborn in the body of a child, heralding the coming of a newer, better human race? Or was it reincarnated by John Constantine without any reference or care for what that would have done to the poor kid suddenly left without a soul?

Still...Sluggo's got that idiotic cap...and a pig nose. I just can't accept a president with a pig nose and an ugly cap. Ultimately, whatever shady past Swamp Thing might have, I think it's high time we had an earth elemental for president. I just wish he hadn't chosen Anton Arcane as his running mate--that can NOT bode well for this country.
Rich Handley | Email | Homepage | 11.20.08 - 10:26 am | #

Impeach Alec Holland.
BATFATTY | 11.20.08 - 11:17 am | #

I can only hope Mr. Thing sees the value in a Cabinet-level position for Mr. Smith. Otherwise it will be just another slap in the face for the movement.
Maxo | Email | Homepage | 11.20.08 - 1:10 pm | #

Time to stock up on herbicide, cause you know he's coming to take your Weed-Be-Gone away...
Aqualad | 11.20.08 - 1:39 pm | #

I think the slanted media made WAY too much of a commotion about Swamp Thing's past associations with Jason Woodrue and Poison Ivy.
Rich Handley | Email | Homepage | 11.20.08 - 2:24 pm | #

david z.: Sluggo's last name was indeed at some point given in the strip as Smith. There is an on-going debate about Nancy's last name, but the general assumption is that it is Ritz, the name of the "aunt" who "adopted" her.
Lawrence Fechtenberger | Email | 11.20.08 - 3:54 pm | #

Well, I'm not very political, but I will say that I found Swamp Thing's speeches very moving -- and I won't say who I voted for, but Mr. Thing's eloquence was a big consideration. I just...don't understand...why those speeches...all...seemed to...take...so long...for him...

...to deliver...
Mike McGee | Email | 11.20.08 - 4:28 pm | #

I found myself disillusioned by this whole campaign, honestly. I'd supported the third-party candidacy of Rollo the Rich Kid until I found out that he was in cahoots with Sluggo's running mate: She was directly responsible for making him a millionaire.

Sure, it was a technicality -- Rollo had $999,999.99 and Nancy gave him a penny so that she could say she made him a millionaire. But I just can't put up with that kind of backroom deal, even if the "backroom" was in fact a grassy lawn with three rocks and the "deal" was in fact an unsolicited offer by a girl trying to make a silly punchline.
Brian Smith | Email | 11.20.08 - 6:54 pm | #

This all would have been slightly amusing had you done it two weeks ago.

Notice I said .
jonboy | 11.20.08 - 7:36 pm | #

jonboy = killjoy
Rich Handley | Email | Homepage | 11.20.08 - 8:23 pm | #

You can't blame Swamp Thing for rolling in the green...I hail our first Veggie-American leader as a step forward...
Aqualad | 11.20.08 - 9:37 pm | #

Jonboy --"Notice I said ."? Is that from the end of Ulysses?
Josh | Email | 11.20.08 - 10:04 pm | #

My running mate... was Anton Arcane... ? I thought... it was... the Phantom Stranger... !
Wait until... my press agent Liz Tremayne... hears about this... !
SWAMP THING | Homepage | 11.20.08 - 10:05 pm | #

I'm glad the election's over. Now it's back to mudbathing rather than mudslinging.
I swear the opposing candidate was less than half my age! He looked like something that came out of Uncle Anton's old labs.
Tefé | 11.20.08 - 10:33 pm | #

I fully supported and voted for Sluggo. His position on Freaks In America was top notch, unlike Holland's. Ach! Nein! I cannot believe Team Sluggo/Nancy '08 did not win!

Gott in Himmel! Arcane will not get away with this!
Cranius | 11.20.08 - 10:59 pm | #

I am most pleased with the results of this election! When Holland's tenure meets its premature end, I promise a health care system like this country has never before seen! HAAAAHAHAHAHAHAAA!!!!
Arcane | 11.20.08 - 11:19 pm | #

In case no one heard the announcement today, Swamp Thing has appointed Lady Jane as his Chief of State. She joins other cabinet members General Sunderland, Cranius, Matango, El Senor Blake, Nathan Ellery, Yggdrasil, John Constantine, Sargon the Sorcerer, Barnabas Tookome, and Wild Thing. I'm just glad Chester Williams will be heading up the EPA.
Rich Handley | Email | Homepage | 11.21.08 - 5:15 am | #