It's Election Week here in America, so we thought we'd take a look at some of the most significant cartoon politicians in animation history. When we say "significant", we're keeping the bar pretty low; they just had to run an election campaign and/or hold some sort of political office. And speaking of low bars, we rounded up the best of the best among cartoon presidents to see how their qualities surpassed those of acting sitting president, Donald Trump.

Believe it or not, there are far fewer cartoon presidents than flesh-and-blood human presidents in history, and while the Millennials in the office think that's an unfair oversight--and that we will see an actual cartoon elected to the position in our lifetimes--that's not the focus of this piece. Instead, we'll be revisiting classic cartoon and comics characters who have taken a shine to politics and raised funds to run for public office. Only about half of the characters in this list made successful runs, despite winning a popular vote over their living, breathing human counterparts. (The Electoral College has long been biased against cartoons and their tuition is, frankly, out of control these days.)

But for those who made the cut, either by citizens exercising their right to vote in democratically held elections or by waking up one morning to find that they are now the President of the United States, we wanted to see what made them special. Some of them have legitimate super powers, something that's long overdue here in the real 3D world. Some of them are celluloid copies of their human counterparts, which one could argue already makes them superior due to the fact that they can't negatively impact we simple folk here in the human world. And some have found enough humility to either call for their own impeachment or to use their position to the betterment of mankind. Those few are rare Presidents, indeed, and arguably more human than some humans who have held the position.

Presidential Nominees

Before we get to the actual cartoon characters who managed to secure the highest office in the land, we have to take some time to remember the presidential hopefuls who campaigned but ultimately came up short. There's a fantastic rundown of the history of cartoon campaigns for the President of the United States over at Time. Here are some of the highlights:

Alvin and the Chipmunks ran a presidential campaign for the leader of the gang back in 1960 with the Billboard Pop Singles Chart entry, "Alvin for President." John F. Kennedy, running against Richard Nixon for the seat, got wind of the campaign and reportedly said, "I'm glad to know that I have at least one worthy opponent."

Dogbert, from Scott Adams' Dilbert comics, ran for President in 2008 and 2012, two attempts to do so in the hopes of winning the election as a step on his plan to world domination.

Yogi Bear vs Magilla Gorilla - In 1964, two of Hanna-Barbera's animated greats went head to head in a presidential campaign battle. Both characters boasted significant approval ratings, but unfortunately neither cartoon creation ended up leading the nation at the end of the campaign. It did lead to some excellent cartoon cabinets being populated with other Hanna-Barbera characters, along with delightful political songs like this one:

Wonder Woman - Back in 1943, the DC Comics superhero became the face of the United States' ruling matriarchy ... 1,000 years in the future. There's an excellent breakdown of the events of "Wonder Woman" Winter Issue No. 7 here, along with some info behind the inspiration for the Amazon's presidential run. Sadly, we still have some 925 years before this prediction becomes true. (Fingers crossed we make it that long!)

The Simpsons: 35 Presidents, a Kennedy, and a Schwarzenegger

The Simpsons, as good a satire as anything else out there when it's on point, has featured 35 U.S. Presidents, a bonus Kennedy, and one governor of California over the years, up to and including President Trump. While the Fox series still has a few Presidents it could choose to include should the jokes align themselves, but the biggest names have already been covered.

For my money, it doesn't get better than Simpsons' version of Bill Clinton. He not only takes time out of his busy schedule to pop in on politically enthusiastic Lisa Simpson, while also admitting he's "a pretty lousy President", he also shows off some saxophone-playing skills. That gives this particular cartoon president the edge over Trump, who doesn't appear to have any demonstrable skills at all.

Our Cartoon President

This is an easy one, though it makes searching the Internet for "cartoon Presidents" much more difficult these days. Sure, Showtime's on-topic animated series may take nonsense straight from the Trump administration to put it in cartoon form, but an impressive Cold War of sorts has popped up between the premium network's show and the dog-and-pony show in the White House. They're both insane, but the edge on leadership that Our Cartoon President has is that, at the end of the day, the animated Trump has no real power to wield over the tired, poor, huddled masses yearning to breathe free. That's a bonus as far as we're concerned.

Harvey Birdman, Attorney General: President Elect Phil Ken Sebben

The recent Harvey Birdman special brought some fan-favorite characters back into the spotlight and in all new positions. Harvey Birdman, Attorney General sees Stephen Colbert's fast-talking and manipulative Phil Ken Sebben waking up one day to discover he's been elected the 46th-and-a-half President of the United States. Almost immediately, he finds that he's unable to resist the urge to push the Big Red Button that will launch nukes, not toward a rival country, but on the White House itself. Based on this fact alone, President Elect Phil Ken Sebben is already a slightly worse President than Trump ...

Except for the fact that 46.5 pressed the doomsday button to force Harvey Birdman and acting Attorney General Birdgirl into expediting his own impeachment. (It occurs during his inauguration, making for history's first "inaugurpeachment.") Not only is the self-made* billionaire self-aware enough to know that he's not fit for the job, it seems there are some ulterior motives at play out behind the scenes. We don't give Phil Ken Sebben much credit where decency is concerned, but the fact that he willingly gives up the Presidency and takes pains to do so is commendable, more commendable than some Pretenders in Chief.

*He actually made the bulk of his money by forcing Harvey to ghost-write a series of thriller novels that have become remarkably popular.

South Park: President Garrison

In Season 19, South Park attempted to out-insane real life by sending Mr. Garrison on Trump's path to the Presidency. Despite the show's incredible ability to churn out topical content on a weekly basis, the political news cycle now operates by the minute and the hour, not the day or the week. Our Cartoon President does a better job of keeping up with this pace, but South Park still has its sharp wit and satirical style locked down.

Drawing some pretty obvious comparisons, Garrison goes on a rant against "invading" Canadians, which not only leads to him being fired from his teaching position but also starting a campaign to run for the presidency. Season 20 sees Garrison earning the Republican nomination and ultimately winning the election, defying Parker and Stone's expectations; it also sees Garrison trying to jump from the campaign train despite its momentum gaining critical mass. And in Season 21, President Garrison drops a nuke on Toronto before going into hiding in the wood surrounding South Park. President Garrison's reign of terror may not yet be over, but like another entry on this list, at least he attempted to save the nation(s) from his inept Presidency before it was too late...

The Bots Master: President of the WORLD

We're digging deep into the archives for these next two, but it's totally worth it. Back in 1993, a little animated series by the name of The Bots Master introduced heroic engineer Ziv "ZZ" Zulander and his team of fighting robots to Saturday morning cartoon-watchers everywhere. Antagonizing ZZ and the robotic B.O.Y.Z.Z. was Sir Leon Lewis Paradim, the president of Robotic Megafact Corporation. Paradim had his sights set much higher than being the president of a company, or even a country; he wanted to be President of the WORLD!

Now that sounds moderately insane today, but in the 2025 setting of the series, there were Presidents of countries and full-on continents. President Bando was the leader of the continent of Africa and an unnamed female President of South America, alongside an unnamed President of Canada (RIP Prime Ministers in 2025) and the sitting U.S. President Iverson, and his daughter Ivon. Paradim not only sends his crazy punk nephew after some of the world's presidents to shore up his support, he even has his henchmen kidnap the U.S. President's daughter. That's some ambition! And though he wasn't successful in his pursuit of World Presidency, we've got to give him the edge for trying.

Super President

And now we come to it at last, the 1967 title character Super President! If I could trust the rest of this country to do the right thing this Election Day, I'd probably write in James Norcross for President. Why? Because his alter ego is the superheroic (but not super secret) Super President!

Not only does Norcross develop insane powers--such as increased strength and the ability to alter his body's molecular composition at will--he also drives a kitted-out, shape-changing Omnicar (which is an automobile, submarine, and jet plane) and has a secret base beneath his "Presidential Mansion", ie a modified White House. Super President battled evil out in the real world through fisticuffs and patriotic fashion, while President Norcross did the same from the Oval Office through legislation and the slightly less invigorating veto power.

Sure, at the time the series drew criticism for displaying a national leader as an invincible superhuman, which sounds nice in theory but quickly gives way to despotism when said super president is absent a conscience. (#NotMySuperPresident) Luckily, this particular super president was a true hero to the core. He's got my vote.

Whoever you vote for this week, just be sure to exercise your right to do so, otherwise you give up the opportunity to elect some real-world superheroes.