CNN took a page from the Cabinet magazine playbook today. In this video, they have graphologist Sheila Kurtz analyze doodles by Obama and Palin that have found their way into the public record. (Download Palin’s drawing here, Obama’s drawing is after the jump).

Kurtz says Obama is “economical and clear and to the point,” while Palin is “smart, but she’s very scattered and all over the place and wants people to recognize her and know who she is.

In 2006, Cabinet Magazine released a collection of Presidential doodles. In the intro of that book, David Greenberg wrote about the doodle as a kind of private information:

Offering glimmers of and glimpses into the private president, doodles constitute small sources of potential understanding to a public that is forever striving to gain insight into its leaders.

In 2006, Greenberg reported that his efforts in Presidential doodle hunting has come up against the roadblock of an increasingly secretive Executive Branch.

Despite a 1978 law mandating the release of most presidential records, George Bush Sr found a loophole to deem reams of official documentation off limits to the public. Bill Clinton, too, has refused to make any available for publication, and his presidential library in Arkansas, having just opened, has yet to yield any either. The present incumbent has also rejected requests for doodles – surpassing even the paranoid Richard Nixon (who was willing to draw doodles for collectors) in his secretiveness in this respect.

Let’s hope an Obama administration will set a new standard for doodle transparency.

Filed under: The New Normal by admin | Social tagging: cabinet magazine > obama > palin > presidential doodles