New pontiff deserves to be given a chance

FOR 20 years, Washington Post cartoonist Herblock depicted Richard Nixon as unshaven, sporting the ‘five o’clock shadow’ which famously counted against him in the 1960 TV debate with John F Kennedy.

But when Nixon won the presidency in 1968, his nemesis decided to drop the practice. "At a time of national division and crisis," Herblock felt, an incoming president "was entitled to his chance to lead". So he drew a cartoon showing a barber chair and a sign saying, "This Shop Gives to Every New President of the United States a Free Shave."

Those who have chosen to take a dim view of the election of Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger as Pope Benedict XVI might reflect on Herblock's gesture.