Posted on 07/13/2008 3:32:05 PM PDT by Vision
The New Yorker says it’s satire. It certainly will be candy for cable news.
At a press availability Sunday afternoon in San Diego, Senator Obama was asked, according to the diligent Maria Gavrilovic of CBS News: “The upcoming issue of the New Yorker, the July 21st issue, has a picture of you, depicting you and your wife on the cover. Have you seen it? If not, I can show it to you on my computer. It shows your wife Michelle with an Afro and an AK 47 and the two of you doing the fist bump with you in a sort of turban-type thing on top. I wondered if you’ve seen it or if you want to see it or if you have a response to it?”
Obama (shrugs incredulously): “I have no response to that.”
Priceless stage direction by Maria.
The magazine explains at the start of its news release previewing the issue: “On the cover of the July 21, 2008, issue of the The New Yorker, in ‘The Politics of Fear,’ artist Barry Blitt satirizes the use of scare tactics and misinformation in the Presidential election to derail Barack Obama’s campaign.”
I’m sure Senator Obama is oh-so appreciative for The New Yorker’s help.
M.O.R.
It’s a parody mocking the what is perceived as the worst fears and propaganda of the right.
The Political Scene
Making It
How Chicago shaped Obama.
by Ryan Lizza
*************************H/T to Flopping Aces**************************
Obama - Your Typical Politician,/b>
******************EXCERPT******************
Posted by: Curt @ 11:31 am in Barack Obama, Uncategorized
In the new issue of The New Yorker there is a long piece about what makes Obama tick. The author, Ryan Lizza, went looking to find out and found that the ticking is just Chicago politics as usual. No change, no new direction. Just plain ole’ politics. It’s a long piece so I’ve taken only bits and pieces of it that are relevant to understanding the messiah.
They start with someone who was beside him early on in his political career but became quite disillusioned by him:
Preckwinkle soon became an Obama loyalist, and she stuck with him in a State Senate campaign that strained or ruptured many friendships but was ultimately successful. Four years later, in 2000, she backed Obama in a doomed congressional campaign against a local icon, the former Black Panther Bobby Rush. And in 2004 Preckwinkle supported Obama during his improbable, successful run for the United States Senate. So it was startling to learn that Toni Preckwinkle had become disenchanted with Barack Obama.
Preckwinkle is a tall, commanding woman with a clipped gray Afro. She has represented her slice of the South Side for seventeen years and expresses no interest in higher office. On Chicago’s City Council, she is often a dissenter against the wishes of Mayor Richard M. Daley. For anyone trying to understand Obama’s breathtakingly rapid political ascent, Preckwinkle is an indispensable witness—a close observer, friend, and confidante during a period of Obama’s life to which he rarely calls attention.
Although many of Obama’s recent supporters have been surprised by signs of political opportunism, Preckwinkle wasn’t. “I think he was very strategic in his choice of friends and mentors,” she told me. “I spent ten years of my adult life working to be alderman. I finally got elected. This is a job I love. And I’m perfectly happy with it. I’m not sure that’s the way that he approached his public life—that he was going to try for a job and stay there for one period of time. In retrospect, I think he saw the positions he held as stepping stones to other things and therefore approached his public life differently than other people might have.”
On issue after issue, Preckwinkle presented Obama as someone who thrived in the world of Chicago politics. She suggested that Obama joined Jeremiah Wright’s Trinity United Church of Christ for political reasons. “It’s a church that would provide you with lots of social connections and prominent parishioners,” she said. “It’s a good place for a politician to be a member.” Preckwinkle was unsparing on the subject of the Chicago real-estate developer Antoin (Tony) Rezko, a friend of Obama’s and one of his top fund-raisers, who was recently convicted of fraud, bribery, and money laundering: “Who you take money from is a reflection of your knowledge at the time and your principles.”
See #123.
As if.
One commentator told me this is the Left's revenge for the Iraq pull-out and FISA. Bzzzzt. Completely ridiculous. A cover decision isn't made in the week before a magazine goes to press. The conventional thinking seems to be it's Hillary's camp. NO. Hillary's career as a politician is on life support with her base. She wants either a lifetime appointment (probably to replace Stevens or Ginzberg) so she can retire with grace and still make trouble, or she wants one more shot, and the only way she can rehab herself is to play nice and make sure Barack loses. Her fingerprints (or her supporters) cannot be anywhere near this.
The cartoonist himself has made it clear this is intended to parody the image Republicans have (or will) paint of Obama. This is inoculation. The strategy is to have this all put away before the convention, and then when Ayers, or Wright, or whatever -- even if it's new material -- comes up they're going to say, "This has all been dealt with. Barack and Michell are Harvard educated lawyers, with two nice kids just livin' the American dream. They aren't going to be burning the American flag in the Oval Office." Then everybody on the talk shows, and the soft news shows, and the Sunday roundtables will laugh and this kind of news will be relegated to talk radio. Wait until Leno, Letterman, Stewart and Colbert start mocking this cover and doing soft interviews about it with the Obamatrons: "why yes David, this is exactly the kind of thing we were so afraid of, but from McCain, from the Eeeeevillll Republicans, not from the folks at The New Yorker."
That's the plan.
I think it could backfire. If we're smart. Will we be?
Not sure....
The are enough qualifications and spin that one can take what is clearly a testimony that Brack is an ambitious politician in a positive or negative light depending on ones predilections. Quote: "In retrospect, I think he saw the positions he held as stepping stones to other things and therefore approached his public life differently than other people might have.”
Not exactly withering fire.
This quote: “Who you take money from is a reflection of your knowledge at the time and your principles.” can be used as exculpatory or inculpatory as well. When Barack knew Reszko, he hadn't yet been convicted of any crimes, so, was his knowledge at the time damning?
Or this one on Trinity UCC: “It’s a church that would provide you with lots of social connections and prominent parishioners,” she said. “It’s a good place for a politician to be a member.
Not news, and it could be taken as just smart politics, and a lame but acceptable rationale for why Brack stayed for so long.
Does the article offer that William Ayers kicked off Barack's first campaign? Does it mention some of the backstabbing he did to get his State Senate seat? Any of the dirty tricks he supposedly used in Texas or the Caucus States to shut down Hillary's organizers and caucus goers?
I hate to say I'm going to have to buy a copy of The New Yorker. Maybe I'll finally go in for the root canal I've been putting off for so long ...
I hate root canals.....I’ve had more than my fair share....
Let us know what you find.
It is evident that one of McCains primary agenda items is to run a “civilized” campaign and to date he has done so by keeping his criticism of Hussein to strictly political issues. While we all would like to see him rip Hussein a new one on all his personal shortcomings, it is not clear not doing this has hurt him.
Although we are to far out for the polls to be a predictor of the final results of this campaign they are helpful in showing trends. Looking at them in that way shows McCain has made steady advances on Hussein and has now closed to even in the 2 most credible polls (Gallup and Rasmussen DTP) while Newsweaks latest poll shows Hussein losing 12 points to McCain in 2 weeks.
In an argument, discussion or a debate it is said correctly that whomever loses their temper first looses the debate. It appears McCain is determined to keep his cool and wait for Hussein’s eroding numbers to push the campaign to full negative mode. We are beginning to see it happen already with the attacks on McCain’s military service.
I can see no other choice for the Hussein campaign other then going negative because he has absolutely nothing going for him as far as experiences or even definitive policy positions. He is all about “feel good” rhetoric and the campaign has and will go on far to long for that alone to get him into the WH. Day by day the media generated halo slips and all are beginning to see this man for what he is, just another politician.
IMO it is a bad, very bad idea to re enforce a negative. That is exactly what this magazine cover does and in a national forum to boot. We are at a place in this race where many Americans are barely if at all paying much attention and to even put the thought into their head that this candidate with the funny name has the slightest connection to our enemy is not a good idea.
They will wish they could take this cover back.
“New Yorker” readers? Maybe those are the folks that get this “satire”. Their art directors eem to enjoy poking a hornets’ nest with a stick when it comes to covers. Anyone remember that Spiegelman cover in the ‘90s that showed a Hasidim smooching a African-American woman, published during the height of the fury over the Yankel Rosenbaum murder?
Eh like anyone outside of the five boroughs and a few counties in NJ and CN read this magazine. Just a ploy to sell more copies....next week they will probably show McCain in a straightjacket, figuring we will all buy it to get enraged.
They MUST be aiming at an audience of pompous left-wing intellectuals, because that's all they've got left as subscribers.
I'm sure it's meant to be a bitter satire on evil, hysterical right-wing Obama detractors. But as I said, the problem is that most of it is based on actual photos and actual facts.
The outfit Obama is wearing is based on that photo of him in Kenya in Muslim garb. The high five comes from another press photograph. Michelle's garb is not literal, but is a kind of visual expression of political attitudes she has occasionally revealed. The flag thrown into the fireplace reminds us of Obama's discarded flag pin, and another famous photo of him holding his crotch during the National Anthem while his fellow Dem candidates salute the flag. And the portrait of Osama? Well, that speaks for itself, too, including the press's occasional confusion of Osama and Obama and his decree forbidding anyone to use his middle name. Not to mention his lying denials that he was EVER a Muslim.
This is very dangerous satire indeed. I think it will make all but the craziest victims of BDS think twice about Obama, not about right-wing crazies who are reputedly slandering him.
Thanks! I guess I’d better just read the whole thing for a change. :’)
Obama Book Goes On The Presses
PR Inside News | July 11, 2008 | Andy Martin
Posted on 07/13/2008 2:11:03 PM PDT by Calpernia
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2044901/posts
I believe The New Yorker has a circulation of under a million. The magazine itself is not only largely regional, but also targeted to a very upscale, highly educated audience — hence the high advertising rates.
In short, the intent of the cover will be apparent to the vast majority of the magazine’s readers.
Breaking News:
President Bush to Lift Executive Ban on Offshore Drilling
Fox News | July 14, 2008
Posted on 07/14/2008 7:18:47 AM PDT by Fox_Mulder77
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2045179/posts
Congressional Off-Shore Drilling Ban
Expires Sept. 30, 2008 — Unless Congress Renews
Monday, July 14, 2008 | Kristinn
Posted on 07/14/2008 9:17:01 AM PDT by kristinn
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2045230/posts
-WOT-
U.S. Considers Increasing Pace of Iraq Pullout
NY Times | July 13, 2008
Posted on 07/12/2008 4:45:46 PM PDT by flyfree
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2044593/posts
US Suffers Heavy Afghan Losses
(Reports of 8 or 9 killed in Kunar Province Attack)
BBC | Sunday, July 13, 2008
Posted on 07/13/2008 10:16:53 AM PDT by kristinn
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2044838/posts
9 U.S. Soldiers Killed in Attack in Afghanistan
NY Times | July 14, 2008 | CARLOTTA GALL
Posted on 07/13/2008 2:38:51 PM PDT by neverdem
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2044912/posts
-the economy-
Feds cite Schumer in collapse of IndyMac
LATimes.com | July 11, 2008 | Peter Viles
Posted on 07/12/2008 10:34:14 AM PDT by kennedy
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2044490/posts
-reparations alert-
Congressional Leaders, Scholars Gather
to Strategize on Black Male Issues
Diverse | June 14, 2008 | Jamal Watson
Posted on 07/14/2008 5:37:30 AM PDT by Lumbertonman
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2045126/posts
One of my inlaws used to be head of the ACLU in Vermont before she retired, and she subscribes to the New Yorker. I think of her as a typical reader. When we go there for dinner I pick up a copy and look through the cartoons.
The New Yorker always used to be found in doctors’ and dentists’ waiting rooms, where you could read a story or look at the cartoons while waiting to go in. Even the barber shops carried it because of the cartoons. But as you say, no longer. It is veddy, veddy exclusive, and circulation has shrunk just like the MSM.
Actually, they used to publish some excellent poems and stories, but it’s been a long time since they were readable, IMHO.
have a great day, all.
Pros & Cons: Local businesses not agreeing with Obama’s position on NAFTA
The McAllen Monitor | July 12, 2008 - 11:23PM | James Osborne
Posted on 07/13/2008 12:16:08 AM PDT by Liberty Valance
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2044712/posts
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