“The Cover”: That Incredible New Yorker Cover
Posted on July 13, 2008
From ABC News
http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2008/07/new-ironic-new.html
Political Punch
Power, pop, and probings from ABC News Senior National Correspondent Jake Tapper
Obama Camp Hammers New ‘Ironic’ New Yorker Cover Depicting Conspiracists’ Nightmare of Real Obamas
July 13, 2008 5:46 PM
The sophisticates at The New Yorker have come up with a cover that is sure to get the magazine a lot of attention. Negative attention. From their friends.
An illustration by Barry Blitt depicts Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., and his wife Michelle in the Oval Office, revealing their “true” selves: Michelle is in full revolutionary garb, an enormous afro making her look like a millennial Angela Davis, holding an automatic weapon and wearing military pants.
In the cartoon Michelle is giving dap, or fist-bumping, with her husband who is wearing a turban and is dressed in garb perhaps more appropriate for a madrassa in Lahore than the Oval Office.
A painting of Osama bin Laden hangs above the fireplace, where the American flag is being burned.
ABC News’ Sunlen Miller reports that when he was asked about the controversial cover during a press avail today, Obama shrugged and then said, “I have no response to that.”
His campaign had a response later in the day on Sunday.
Said Obama spox Bill Burton: “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.”
Knowing the liberal politics of the magazine, I believe the magazine’s staff when they say the illustration is meant ironically, as a parody of the caricature some conservatives (and some supporters of Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y.) are painting of the Obamas.
But it’s still fairly incendiary, at least as these things go. I wonder what the reaction would be were it the Weekly Standard or the National Review putting such an illustration on their covers.
Intent factors into these matters, of course, but no Upper East Side liberal — no matter how superior they feel their intellect is — should assume that just because they’re mocking such ridiculousness, the illustration won’t feed into the same beast in emails and other media. It’s a recruitment poster for the right-wing.
“This is as offensive a caricature as any magazine could publish,” says a high-profile Obama supporter, “and I suspect that other Obama supporters like me are also thinking about not subscribing to or buying a magazine that trafficks in such trash.”
But I would assume over at the Conde Nast building, they think it’s droll.
I cannot imagine there aren’t some angry, angry people in Chicago right now wondering if they should ever even talk to the New Yorker again.
- jpt
A note from Radarsite: If a picture is worth a thousand words, then this incredible cover from The New Yorker is worth an encyclopedia. Whatever their original intentions, whatever their motivation, whether ironical or not, this caricature hits the proverbial nail on its proverbial head. No single illustration could more perfectly convey the legitimate — I repeat, legitimate — fears and concerns that so many of us have about the prospects of an Obama Presidency. An Islamophile and a racist. What a great prospect for America’s future.
We can only hope that this shocking New Yorker cover takes on a life of its own, and is seen by millions of potential Obama supporters. Maybe, just maybe, where our thousands of words have failed, a picture can succeed.
An Obama White House is the very worst thing that could happen to our already vulnerable nation. We can only hope that this one inflammatory picture will help to seal his political doom. - rg
Also see Hot Air
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9 Responses to ““The Cover”: That Incredible New Yorker Cover”
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They are a scary couple.
WOOO HOOOO, this is great, and Roger of RadarSite is right on (as he always is). Love that cover. I’m wondering what E. D. Hill of Fox News thinks of it???
Waiting with baited breath for “Fight The Smears” @ MyBO.com to dedicate a special page to this delicious irony.
Bwahahahahahaha
Obama has played the game long enough now the game is being played on him.
Whether or not you like the politics of the cover, it does convey the fears of most of the “legal” American voters.
It not like this isn’t a real concern when one looks beyond the lemming like following Obama has among American sheep.
TOM
.. What is wrong with Libtards?? No sense of Humor? wonder how they’d react if this were a cartoon of a Skyraider being shot down in flames over VN… after all Oily did say that flying a plane and dropping bomb was nothing unusual especially getting shot down… and seconded by Cliunmton, Harkin and webb.. For once I am beginning to think that Obama is beginning to appear for what he really is… and even libtards are Unhappy at the coming of a second DUKAKIS!
“Doncha think they dap behind closed doors?” Get a life Amerika! I love the New Yorker…
I just love reading the meanderings of the far right….it cracks me up that a cover can “convey the fears of most of the “legal” American voter” or “libtards” have no sense of humor…then my smile fades as i realize that it’s not a conservative issue…it’s a simple hatred issue born from ignorance….which is truly something to fear, for ignorance en masse has a pretty lousy history when you think about it…
To Demo-nite –
“a simple hatred issue born from ignorance”
If you truly believe that, if that line actually comforts you, if you find solace in your delusion and denial, if you actually believe that an Obama presidency would only cause problems for the far right, then I suggest that it is not we who are in ignorance.
Believe it or not, I truly wish that you and all of your friends were right. But you are not right, you are monumentally wrong, and we may all suffer the consequences of your blind and stubborn ignorance.