“Figgerin' on the Returns”

In this cartoon, William Jennings Bryan, William Randolph Hearst, and President Theodore Roosevelt closely examine the 1907 state and local election returns to try to predict the possible impact these returns may have on their own political futures. The books scattered around the floor suggest that forecasting the consequences that result from an election is as challenging as doing "infinitesimal calculus." Bryan went on to run unsuccessfully for President the next year, and Hearst ran unsuccessfully for Mayor of New York City in 1909. Roosevelt did not run for reelection and instead went into temporary retirement after his term expired.