Ya can't make it up (Obama in turban and Michelle w/ Afro toting AK-47 on The New Yorker cover)

POLITICO ^ | 7/13/08 | Jonathan Martin

[XR7]

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.

UPDATE -- Obama campaign spokesman Bill Burton says: “The New Yorker may think, as one of their staff explained to us, that their cover is a satirical lampoon of the caricature Senator Obama's right-wing critics have tried to create. But most readers will see it as tasteless and offensive. And we agree."

UPDATE to the UPDATE -- McCain spokesman Tucker "Outward" Bounds quickly e-mailed: "We completely agree with the Obama campaign, it’s tasteless and offensive.”

[Post Toasties]

The Hussein Campaign ought to consider that the New Yorker cover meets the CBS standard of 'Fake but Accurate', so there should be no problem. IAC, it's way funnier than the Left Wing favorite of George W. Bush being assassinated or impeached.

Why doesn't the McCain Campaign know better than to stick their oar into that mess?

[LayoutGuru2]

What’s unsaid is that the scene on the cover is in The Oval.

Oh, and don't miss the portrait of OBL to the right"

[wastedyears]

This made me giddy.

I love the First Amendment.

[savedbygrace]

Still, what it says is: No matter what those wacky right wingers say about him, they can’t keep Obama from winning the election.

And Obama has the audacity to complain about it.

[CounterCounterCulture]

Wow.
Wow.
Wow.

* right-click * save

[WoofDog123]

and it is good that they did do it, no matter what they claim their intent was. A picture is worth a thousand words, and this will clearly articulate what many have had a sense of but been unable to either identify or find anything agreeing with them.

No way this helps obama, too much truth in it.

[Slings and Arrows]

Just the right size for a cell phone wallpaper, too.

[Grampa Dave]

[weegee]

Did Jesse Jackson draw it?

Is there another article about Radical Chic by Tom Wolfe on the inside?

[The Iguana]

He's not the Antichrist. He's a naive, Chicago politician pandering to everyone he meets.

Just as we should be aware - I mean, come on - that Obama's religion isn't Islam.

It's Big Government.

[ArcadeQuarters]

Wait a second. Where’s the satirical part. I don’t get it.

[Enduring Freedom]

With kudos to Charles Henrickson

[Enduring Freedom]

Inauguration Date: January 20, 2009

[Raquel]

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2045104/posts

[headstamp 2]

Michelle reminds me of Angela Davis.

[headstamp 2]

Great minds think alike, just what I was thinking, LOL.

[HollyB]

you’re right, with a picture of OBL on the wall and a flag burning in the fireplace.

[headstamp 2]

“UPDATE — Obama campaign spokesman Bill Burton says: “The New Yorker may think, as one of their staff explained to us, that their cover is a satirical lampoon of the caricature Senator Obama’s right-wing critics have tried to create. But most readers will see it as tasteless and offensive. And we agree.”

Yes, we all know that the New Yorker is such a “right-wing” publication.

[Wallace T.]

It is the nature of politics that one side picks up on the misstatements and flaws of the other. For example, the liberals flogged Phil Gramm's remarks about a psychological, rather than a real, recession for political points, and of course went beyond his specific context. There are plenty of conservative cartoonists who would have done as good, if not a better, job as the artist who drew the cartoon on The New Yorker front cover did. They may be posted in the relative anonymity of a site like FR, or on a blog of someone who does not worry about the wrath of the MSM or the RINO/Democrat political establishment. However, you could not imagine National Review, The Weekly Standard, or even The American Conservative placing such a cartoon on its front cover, or even in the interior pages.

Since even The New Yorker is catching some heat for their front cover, it is evident that satire is riskier, even for liberals, than it was in the 1970s, when The National Lampoon made fun of both liberal and conservative shibboleths.