Donkey's V Elephant's

In the UK The Conservative's logo is a tree and Labour's is a Rose while the Lib Dem's go with a yellow bird but in America the Democrats have a Donkey and the Republicans an Elephant which i have always thought was a bit of a strange choice for a parties trying to get elected.
In the UK Footballer who are a bit slow and clusmy hear chants of 'Donkey' aimed at them as Arsenal's defender Tony Adams found out as away grounds rocked to the sound of 'Hee-Haw' whenever he stepped out of the changing room and Elephants are generally big, slow moving grey creatures so neither logos are of particularly clever or dynamic animals.
According to an historian i know (everyone should know an Historian in my opinion) the Democrat donkey was an insult  aimed at Andrew Jackson  who was labeled a 'jackass' by his opponents and he
co-opted the insult and began putting a donkey on his election posters and it has been their ever since.
The Republican Elephant came about as a cartoonist showed the Democrat Donkey laying a trap for Elephants with 'Republicans' scrawled on the side and the Donkey trapping an Elephant became a theme other polical cartoonists picked up and ran with it and Republicans became so associated with an elephant that they began using it on their party literature and political merchandise and cementing the association between the elephant and the Republicans.
So both Party logo's started out as insults which both embraced and became associated with their parties which explains why neither is a complimentary animal to be associated with and i guess it is too late now to change it to something better.