"The Politics of Fear” by Barry Blitt, July 21, 2008 edition of The New Yorker
plez sez: The blogosphere has certainly been buzzing since The New Yorker released the cover artwork for next week's magazine. The reactions have ranged from an acknowledgement that this is satire, to utter dismay, to cries of racism, to accusations of sexism (for real!), combined with lots of gnashing of teeth (plezWife is pissed!), especially from a number of Black bloggers: Afro-Netizen, Acting White, Booker Rising, Afronerd, Electronic Village, AverageBro.com, the field negro, thestateof.com, Homeland Colors, Jack & Jill Politics, and African American Political Pundit.
Obama campaign spokesman Bill Burton called it "tasteless and offensive" and, according to Jake Tapper at ABC, another high-profile Obama supporter called it "as offensive a caricature as any magazine could publish."
Talk about piling it on thick, you'd think it was another cover with Barack Obama in the crosshairs of a rifle!
It appears that plezWorld is going to side with the minority view of this knee jerk reaction to a The New Yorker magazine cover. A few years ago, for their Easter edition, the magazine portrayed the Easter Bunny nailed to the cross - I imagine a slew of those fervent Christian bloggers went on a rant about that one, too.
The satire that one finds on the cover (and inside this magazine, for those of us who actually read it) can be quite provocative at times. But then again, isn't that the purpose of satire? It is supposed to poke the sleeping dog, it is supposed to to show the absurdity of a situation, it is supposed to shock you... or else, it isn't satire!
Some have suggested that The New Yorker is now duty bound to dredge up a similarly offensive cover for John McCain. Why would they? It wouldn't be funny, because he isn't going to be the next President of the United States! So it wouldn't be very provocative nor insightful... besides, which rumors about John McCain are false?!?
This cartoon basically laughs at those who succumb to "the politics of fear" as spouted by those dreaded Republicans. If nothing else, the ones who came up with the fodder for this cartoon should be lambasted, not the artist who satirized them!
There are those who are afraid that some American voters will see the magazine and (heaven forbid) they will believe everything on the cover of a magazine that they don't have the intelligence to read is true... and then they won't vote for Barry! It's time to buy a clue, ya'll... those slack jawed yahoos who are going to base their vote on the cover of The New Yorker never had any intention of voting for Obama in the first place: no matter how much AMBI® Fade Cream Michelle Obama slathers on her face, and no matter if Barack Obama decided to die his hair blonde, grow it out and wear it in a mullet!
This isn't some slick campaign mailer sent out by the McCain campaign that uses subliminal messages with rumors about the Obamas that we've never heard before. If you are blind, deaf, and dumb, you've seen or heard reference to everything on the cover artwork during the last nine months by some instrument of the right wing wacko squad:
Obama in "Muslim" garb - If you recall, Hillary Clinton (who happens to be a member of the left wing wacko squad) said, "I don't know if he's not a Muslim," during the campaign Portrait of Osama bin Laden above the fireplace - "Obama sounds an awful lot like Osama if you ask me" has to have been uttered once or twice over the past year on Fox News Network American flag in the fireplace - "Why doesn't he wear a flag lapel pin? He must not be patriotic!" Michelle Obama sporting the Angela Davis afro, wearing camo pants, and sporting a Black Panther sub-machine gun for extra measure - Cindy McCain during one of her more sober moments said, "I don't know about her, but I've always been proud of my country." The Obama Fist Bump - "...a terrorist fist bump?" as heard on Fox News Network soon after the Obamas' gesture at his victory speech on June 3rd And if you look real hard at the picture, all of this is taking place in the Oval Office on January 20, 2009!
Come on folks, it is what it is, Barack Obama is going to be scrutinized, he is going to be poked and prodded, he is going to be lied about, and some pretty ugly stuff is going to be said about him. But he's also going to be the next President of the United States... you people are going to have to get used to this, and you may as well start now!
Personally, I think this cover would be an excellent treatment for a skit on an episode of Saturday Night Live after the general election in November!
NOTE: plezWorld has been a subscriber to The New Yorker magazine for over ten years. For those who are so inclined, this issue of the magazine has a very insightful article on Barack Obama's early years as a politician in Chicago.
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