The Obama campaign condemns the cover of New Yorker as "tasteless and offensive"

[mtnsnake]

'Scare tactic' — Obama slams Muslim portrayal
By MIKE ALLEN | 7/13/08 6:14 PM EST Text Size:

The Obama campaign is condemning as “tasteless and offensive” a New Yorker magazine cover that depicts Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) in a turban, fist-bumping his gun-slinging wife.

An American flag burns in their fireplace.

The New Yorker says it's satire. It certainly will be candy for cable news.

The Obama campaign quickly condemned the rendering. Spokesman Bill Burton said in a statement: “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."

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

More at http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0708/11718.html

[JoFerret]

1. Clever campaign move

Makes me thing they are behind it.

[Colobo]

4. Who knows.

[JoFerret]

6. I doubt they actually are behind it but

for sure this is not - repeat not - an attack on the Obamas.
Only the most precious and literal minded can see it that way.
Of course - how one reads it is very much up to the individual sensibility.

[democrattotheend]

27. Are you kidding? Have you read the actual article?

It's worse than the cover. Plus, how could they be behind it? Do they have operatives who have infiltrated the staff of the New Yorker?

[beachmom]

34. The article was good and bad. Parts of it were unfavorable but other parts

portrayed him as an astute political strategist. Where I think it fell short is its failure to show what made Obama tick -- what issues moved him.

[BeyondGeography]

30. You should just refrain from commenting on anything Obama

We'll all be better off that way.

[JoFerret]

33. Closed minds closing down

expression. Sounds like a plan.

[iamjoy]

2. Thanks For Reinforcing

A lot of people just don't get satire. I get satire, but when I first looked at it, I wasn't sure what it was supposed to mean. This "cartoon" only serves to highlight some people's deepest fears about Obama.

[WCGreen]

21. Since I have been a subscriber on and off for over 30 years...

This is just what they do...

They turn the screw a little to everyone and anyone...

[Orrex]

29. highlighting some people's deepest fears

Heck, they could have done that just by showing him behind the desk in the Oval Office.

[IntravenousDemilo]

3. Talk about your overreaction!

The more elegant response would have been, "Oh, haha, that's... very amusing, I guess." And then we just move on like an adult.

I don't think that Alva Redneck is likely to read The New Yorker, that is, if they even carry it in the stores in Catfish Gulch.

[Colobo]

5. But right wing talking heads will tell Alva Redneck about it and she will believe it...

[IntravenousDemilo]

10. Alva Redneck wasn't going to vote for Barack Obama anyway.

Which isn't a major problem anyway unless he's counting on the Alva Redneck vote. And the right-wing talking heads wouldn't bother with it if Obama's mouthpiece had just laughed it off. Now Obama is going to come off as all prissy and oversensitive, and that's what the talking heads will talk about.

[terrya]

25. I agree with you.

I think the Obama campaign overreacted with that cover. Bubba, after coming home from the NASCAR race in Catfish Gulch, sure as hell isn't going to pop open his can of Budweiser and peruse the latest copy of The New Yorker.

SHMILY

[WinkyDink]

7. Humorless! Illiterate! Against free expression!

At least, according to some DU'ers.

[jonnyblitz]

16. yeah, according to me, except i would add a few more adjectives.

:hi:

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

8. Too bad the Obama campaign can't recognize friends on their side

who are defanging the opposition by ridiculing their portrait of the Obamas.

Good God! Who is making these first responses? 24 year olds? Do they even know what the New Yorker is? Do they think it's a tabloid handout at highway rest stops?

They should have said:

We appreciate that the magazine is skewering and ridiculing the unflattering and untruthful portrait of Sen Obama that is being offered up by his detractors. We hope that anyone who views this cover will recognize that as the intent and we expect that the New Yorker will help to clarify this in any further discussions.

[Political Heretic]

23. With friends like those we don't need any enemies.

[madfloridian]

9. McCain campaign spoke out against it. I think is pretty bad.

I think it is a dangerous depiction considering the hate blogs that will eat this stuff up and not be smart enough to see it is making fun of them...not Obama. They will not get it.

[IntravenousDemilo]

11. I suppose, then, that we could send the hate bloggers to re-education camps...

...so they can get their heads screwed on straight and facing forward. And then we can talk about letting 'em vote.

[mtnsnake]

12. Yup you nailed it

I think it is a dangerous depiction considering the hate blogs that will eat this stuff up and not be smart enough to see it is making fun of them...not Obama. They will not get it.

Exactly what worries me, too. Not only that, but even if those same hate blogs DO "get" it, they're not about to explain the real meaning of it to any of their sheeple. Instead, they'll tell their sheeple, "Even a liberal New York magazine portrayed Obama as being a turban-wearing, flag-burning candidate" or something to that effect.

[Goblinmonger]

14. Next let's stop Colbert! n/t

[Piperay]

17. Agreed nt

[Bonobo]

13. Up to no good, I suspect.

[Divine Discontent]

15. total agreement

Obama will smooth it away, as he always does so eloquently, but they are ticked about it and should be. It perpetuates the fear about Obama, and when our own side is MAKING these drawings, well shit, what more can you say but, how opposite to the positive campaign of Obama can you get?

[DeepModem Mom]

18. K&R

[Breeze54]

19. Boy, that was fast! I think his FISA vote was "tasteless and offensive" !

What we don't need is a leader lacking a sense of humor. :eyes:

[Divine Discontent]

20. this needs more Recs than my thread to write them

people need to see the Obamas did not appreciate this, when his situation is such a volatile and fragile one, being a black man literally a few months away from being the president of the USA, the first non white in this situation. Any attack on his character needs to be shot down quickly. This satirical thud by the NYer is not helpful.

[DFLforever]

22. That's understatement from the campaign.

Secret Service will probably need to add additional agents for the Obamas.

When right wing-nuts see or hear about such images, they take them literally. They're not into chic uptown humor.

[Imagevision]

24. Controversy = $$$ what more can be said?

[FredfromSpace]

26. Overreaction.

Nt.

[slinkerwink]

28. if you have to explain satire, it's an epic FAIL.

This satirical cover was given no context, and at worst, perpetuated the right-wing smears of the Obamas with no debunkings inside the article.

[ElboRuum]

35. If you need a context to get this is a satire...

...because it is indeed so obvious as to not require one, then satire itself should be stricken from our lexicon. Due to the very few people who appreciate it, and to all of the others whom it never fails to offend, this formerly effective form of humorous discourse now represents only firm consternation and abject misunderstanding.

Of course the MSM is going to run with this. Do you think a goddamn one of them GETS satire? These are the same nitwits whose sense of humor and understanding of wit starts and ends with sneering insults, pie-in-the-face gags, and YouTube videos of people getting kicked in the balls.

[Evergreen Emerald]

31. The response reminds me of the time Colbert was invited by Republicans

to the White house media correspondence dinner. They did not understand satire either.

[glitch]

36. Colbert was skewering people in power - as the best satirists do. Obama is not in power.

Yet.

[Goblinmonger]

37. Obama's not the one being satarized in the cartoon.

You do know that, right?

[glitch]

38. This is also why the "satire" misses. They should have put their subjects in the graphic, somewhere

Yes I do know that, and why so snotty in a simple discussion? Usually resorting to snot signifies an empty argument.

Edit to add: Colbert is so much more brilliant than this, he actually did his satire to their faces. The alleged subjects of this satire don't even read the magazine. I don't think comparing Colbert to this cartoon is valid.

[Evergreen Emerald]

39. ummm... he is a US Senator running for the most powerful position on the world

He has power.

[Max_powers94]

32. good Obama needed to do this ...things like this can get out of hand fast

[NC_Nurse]

40. Oh well, once again my finger is not on the pulse of America...

I thought it was a funny parody of all the bullshit that crazy RW'ers have been pushing about him.

But I guess Americans are dumb enough to take this cartoon as a depiction of the true Obama.

It's pathetic, really.

[Laelth]

41. I'm glad the campaign responded.

But I hope Obama, himself, responds. That cover is beyond offensive. It's an accusation of treason, the worst crime in American jurisprudence and the only crime defined by the Constitution. It's worse than accusing the Obamas of being serial murderers. Obama should not make John Kerry's mistake and let this go by without confronting it directly and forcefully. This is a serious attack, regardless of what the artist intended.

-Laelth