The New Yorker caricatures the Obamas
The latest issue of The New Yorker has unleased a firestorm of protest from supporters of Barack Obama. Many people have denounced the cartoon on the cover as overtly racist. It depicts the presumptive Democratic nominee in the Oval Office clad in Muslim garb, fist-bumping his wife who is shown wearing a Black Panther outfit with a machine gun slung over her shoulder. To complete the caricature a picture of Osama bin Laden hangs over a fireplace in which an American flag is burning.

As satire goes it represents all the right wing redneck stereotypes of the Obamas tied up with a big red bow (forgetting for the moment it was Hillary Clinton's campaign that first tried to exploit Senator Obama's Muslim heritage to strike fear into voters' hearts). The Obama campaign denounced the cover as "tasteless and offensive". A spokesman for Republican John McCain used the exact same phrase when asked about the magazine's cover.

But is it really offensive? Is The New Yorker trying to hurt Obama's chances of winning the White House? Can their caricature now be wielded by his opponents as "proof" that even the liberals see Obama as a threat? No, I don't think so.

I see the cover as a very interesting piece of reverse-propaganda. The New Yorker is cleverly sidelining any further insinuations about the Obamas association with Muslim interests or black power activists. As an organ of the liberal left wing they get a "pass" on the content of their satire, and they obviate the ability of any other publication to print something similar. Any less of a caricature would be pointless; a further embellishment would automatically evoke outcries of racism.

The furor over the cover also obscures the content of the articles inside. Barack Obama's long association with Tony Rezko is laid bare for all to see, and the details thereof make for interesting reading. Ryan Lizza does an admirable job of exposing Obama as just another opportunistic Chicago politician, one who hacked and climbed his way to the top without too much regard for the people he stepped over to get there. The article contains many anecdotes which describe Obama's self-absorption -- he clearly seems to believe in his own cult of personality.

Now all of those facts are secondary. By printing the cover cartoon The New Yorker has tied anti-Obama citations of their article, and indeed almost any criticism of Obama, to the negative reactions surrounding the magazine cover. People who use information from the article to attack Obama can simply be dismissed as paranoid racists who believe that the picture on the cover matches reality.

Which is, of course, precisely the effect Senator Obama wants. If we don't vote for him, we must be racists.

Posted at 17:58 by Chris   [/election]   | | | Email | del.icio.us | Digg | Stumble It! | Reddit | Link