The Donkey
What's red and blue, has four hooves and neighs?
A democrat.
The 142-year-old symbol of the Democratic Party made its first official appearance in January 1870 in a newspaper called Harper's Weekly via a political cartoon by Thomas Nast, according to History.com.
Andrew Jackson was the first Democrat to be associated with the donkey symbol, however, in 1828. His opponents tried to label him a jackass for his populist beliefs and slogan "Let the people rule." Jackson was entertained by the notion and used the symbol to his advantage.
The cartoon, titled "A Live Jackass Kicking a Dead Lion," featured a donkey in a wooded area labeled "Copperhead Papers," kicking a male lion, labeled "E.M. Stanton," lying at the base of a tree.
According to WSFA 12, a news station in Alabama, a more than 30-year-old donkey named Irene, born in Texas, allegedly attended President Barack Obama's inauguration in a gown from Bloomingdale's.
The Democratic Party is more than 200 years old and has been affiliated not only with Obama but also former presidents John F. Kennedy and Franklin D. Roosevelt.
The Elephant
The wrinkled, gray and usually 200-pound mascot for the Republican Party made its first appearance in Harper's Weekly, though it was four years after the Democratic donkey.
Also drawn by Thomas Nast, the elephant appeared in a political cartoon titled "The Third Term Panic," with an elephant labeled "The Republican Vote." The Democratic donkey appears again wearing a lion's skin and scaring several other animals including a unicorn labeled "N.Y. Times" and a giraffe labeled "N.Y. Tribune."
No elephants have attended Republican inaugurations (none that we know of anyway), but the party has inspired a literotica blog called "Tickle the Elephant" that launched in September and hosts erotic short stories meant for Republican women.
The Republican Party, a little more than 160 years old, has been affiliated with former presidents George W. Bush, Abraham Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt.
The contemporary elephant and donkey symbols appear in basic blue and red silhouettes with stars.
