How The New Yorker Is Portraying Barack Obama Today

Needless to say, the Obama campaign is not amused.

The American flag burning in the fireplace is a nice touch.  Also there's some Arab or Muslim character reminiscent of Osama Bin Laden in the portrait on the wall.

This is fairly mild as political satire goes.  Far worse attacks on Republicans are routinely published.  If this were a portrayal of George Bush it would not even draw comment.

How far is this satire from the truth when it comes to Obama?

1.  Wife wielding AK-47 -- nope.

2.  Muslim garb for Obama -- yep, but not recently.

3.  Arab portrait on the wall -- unlikely, but Obama has many fans among Arab terrorists.

4.  Flag burning in fireplace -- nope. The Obamas don't burn American flags, -- but Obama usually refuses to wear a flag pin.

Like most satire, it has strength only to the degree that it captures a truth.

There's a truth, here, imperfectly captured.  Hence the screams and groans from the left.

Comments

[Fred]

There is a saying on the left: IOKIFYAR. It stands for "Its ok if you are a republican". That means the media will treat the right side with kid gloves and the pregressives as cartoon characters. It's their vision of fair and balanced. It's untrue, but that does not matter in a fascist state of america.

The problem with Gina's toss away reasons for the cover shot to be insignificant are legion. First is we are talking about Low Information Voters who rely on these quick hits to form their values and opinions. The LIV don't look elsewhere for their news and facts, they are LOW INFORMATION VOTERS who breathe in what ever is fed to them.

Second is that if this cover depicted McCain crashing five planes - two of them stolen, there would be outrage from Gina's web site. If the cover depicted McCian leaving his injured and disfigured wife, there would be outrage on Gina's web site. If the cover showed McCain married his 2nd wife, while still being married to his first wife, Gina's website would be outraged. If the cover showed McCain making enemy propoganda films for the vietcong, Gina's page would be filled with outrage.

You cannot make fun of a loyal, patriotic American by depicting him in Muslim garb and an American flag burning in the fireplace unless your goal was clear: Further confuse the Low Information Voters so they think Obama is cary and 'not from around here'.

For Gina to side with this awful characterization tells me she would prefer the GOP - rather than America - to win the next election. Got war crimes?

[Chelsea]

I generally appreciate The New Yorker and their cartoons (about Republicans AND Democrats) but I find this utterly offensive and disgusting.
Why?
Not because it speaks to a truth, but because it rekindles an imagery and message of the darkest hour in American History and associates it with a man who is making an effort to bring a sense of hope and light to this darkened country. I'm not saying he isn't a politician, but you can't say that McCain or Nader or whomever isn't, either. It's utterly gross.

"2. Muslim garb for Obama -- yep, but not recently."

I keep forgetting that Multiculturalism is a Political Sin in this day and age and in this country. When the world isn't getting any bigger and we are in the position where we have daily interaction with people from all cultures and backgrounds, I am so glad that we look at anyone who is not WASP as a terrorist, terrorist sympathizer or Anti-American. Whew.