Democrats who laugh it up to our collective peril.

[Neshanic]

I am a big fan of the New Yorker. I always have been. Love the articles and love the cartoons. The cartoons especially are funny because they are sometimes so sublime, they need to be looked at for longer than a moment. Oh, but that's me, a New Jersey native back woods suburban moron that can't get satire. You know the type, class trips when young into the city to see plays on broadway that people in the flyover states would have an heart attack over their kids seeing. Living in New Yorks influence for 20 years, taking in it's culture, art, and all the great things that it offers people that live near it, but strangely I cannot get satire.

Well there is a line that can be crossed. It's there. Publishers, artists, cartoonists, creative people that use their talent that was given to them to amuse us with their take on our society know it when they see it. The Obama cover was just that. There was a clear line that was blinking red on that one, and they, well they just said fuck it on this one. Why? Who knows? But all the explaining in the world cannot erase a cartoon gone too far. A cover of a magazine gone too far.

We have so much riding on this election, and all you people that "get" satire unlike me, can laugh your asses off when Mccain takes the oath of office.

It's just a magazine cover. It's just an ad with a kid plucking a daisy. It's just a candidate being tossed around the top of a tank with a helmet on. It's just an image. It's FUNNY!

Polls or no polls, it's not going to be a cake walk. Making the biggest inside joke for the enjoyment of a circulation number that would be less than a gamer magazine is quite a pricey satirical joke. Feeding the republicans and the great FOX masses with this wonderfull prime piece of steak is not a option anynore that we can afford or allow.

So sit back and have a good laugh now, as you smugly get the low inside pitch that others can't or will not, because well you deserve it, you smart hip person you.

[rug]

1. I doubt he'll lose because of a cartoon.

[Neshanic]

5. It all adds up. A bit here, a bit there.

[Richardo]

9. Pretty soon you have two bits.

Next week some new outrage will be manufactured on one side or the other and by the end of the month this will a faint blip on the receding horizon.

The election will not be affected one whit by this cartoon.

[Neshanic]

11. Not at all. Move along, nothing to see here.

[Richardo]

15. That's a great non sequitur

Kudos!

[gatorboy]

2. Shhhh. Remember those Swift Boaters? That blew over, right?

I mean who could POSSIBLY believe that crap? In a week's time everybody will move on...


Oh, wait a minute....

[BOSSHOG]

4. Point will taken

Republicans sure as hell don't know how to govern but they do know how to win elections. But what the hell is the New Yorker doing this for?

As conservatives like to tell the populace, government does not work, put us in charge and we will prove it.

[EstimatedProphet]

8. Had Kerry actually addressed the Swift Boaters then they wouldn't have gotten away with it

[Lorien]

13. Oh, and let's not forget "Al Gore said he invented the internet"

glad to see that silly little piece of misinformation was dismissed!

[Neshanic]

19. And it never will be. It's an institutional and society-wide joke, even when people

know better.

[BOSSHOG]

3. Maybe the Magazine will return the favor and do a "satirical cover"

of mccain next month. Sadly your post gains life from the incredible ignorance of the gop base. Your post hits the mark and is directed by the likes of me. I truly wish I could change the minds of morons who spend a great part of their life looking at a radio.

My inner English Nazi says "Democrats WHO laugh."

[Neshanic]

6. Thank you.

[EstimatedProphet]

7. Lighten up, Francis

What the cover is about isn't ha ha guffaws, it's about taking the rightwing smears and putting them out into the open, where everyone can see them for what they are.

Anyone who takes that cover seriously isn't going to vote for Obama anyway. But anyone who isn't really following the election, be they too busy or uninterested or whatever, will glance at the cover, think WTF, maybe get enraged, and then have everything click into place. Maybe not immediately, but if they are thinking, it will happen. This gives us the chance to point out that the rightwing actually is smearing Obama, and not punch at shadows like emails and rumors that are spawned from nowhere. Because, if the smears weren't going on, then why is this an issue in the first place? The right can't use this cover because we can scream from the rooftops that the cover makes fun of the right, and aren't they stupid for not even knowing when people have taken a big pie and slammed it into their faces.

[Neshanic]

10. Ah, the golden opportunity sunshine happy theory.

[Goblinmonger]

17. You do know that the title of the cover is

"politics of hate" right?

[Neshanic]

21. The title printed inside? That one?

[EstimatedProphet]

29. Yeah. That one.

The one that is as obvious as the cartoon is.

[Richardo]

12. No one is thinking of the aftermath...

...from now on, this cover pretty much pre-empts any talk of the Obamas' patriotism or loyalty.

That discussion is over.

It's been ridiculed in public, to much hoopla (thanks, DU!) and now anyone who disparages the Obamas can be met with: "you got that from the cartoon, didn't you?"

[EstimatedProphet]

28. Exactly

And that is exactly what we need to do.

[terrya]

22. Reading all this stuff, I guess the election is over.

John and Cindy might as well start packing for 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue right now. Becausde of a magazine cover.

Those evil fuckers at the New Yorker. Damn them. :grr:

[AdHocSolver]

24. The majority of people operate on Pavlovian principals. They don't contemplate -- they react.

Latte liberals think that most people are like them: spending hours upon hours learning the meaning of existence by contemplating their navels.

Sorry! Most people will spend two or three seconds looking at the picture and absorb only the caricature.

The Republicans understand this. That is why they are better at winning elections.

Whether intentional(?) or not, this magazine cover, besides not being funny and in poor taste, will not help Obama, and may have a negative effect on his campaign.

[Neshanic]

26. Republicans master the art of the image and the message to it's purest point that they need.

That's why shit like this muddies up the water.

We have to E X P L A I N.....again, and again, and again.....

[EstimatedProphet]

27. If Obama is smart, this gives him a fantastic opportunity

Far from ruining his campaign, he can use this to beat the hell out of the rightwing assholes. All he has to do is come out and say "I am offended by this picture, and it pains me that I have to debunk it. I wouldn't have to though, had the Republicans gone out of ther way to invent a ridiculous, absurd smear campaign." Go on then and start listing the rumors and emails. The bigots aren't going to vote for him anyway, and anyone who hasn't been paying attention will have all the crap out in the open for everyone to see. The right can't use this either, because it is directed at them. If they try to make light of it, they make fun of their own idea, which undermines it. If they try to claim that the New Yorker is on their side, then we point at them and laugh, and talk about how they are all so stupid and paranoid that they don't even know when they are being laughed at.

The whisper campaign is one of the most dangerous things in politics. Kerry tried to ignore it in 2004, and now "swiftboat" is a verb. Let the lies go without facing them head-on and they will gain strength. This cartoon gets them out in the open and shows them for what they are, and shows the idiots and assholes spreading them for what they are too.

[BeyondGeography]

14. K&R from a fellow fan and long-time subscriber

Nothing reminds you that they're so much better at lampooning bored rich people at cocktail parties more than this.

[Neshanic]

18. My favorite was a cartoon that was hockey players lined up after the game.

"Good game. Good game. Good game. I love you. Good game."

[BeyondGeography]

23. I like the contests on the back page as well

Lot of talent out there amongst the readership.

[European Socialist]

16. John McCain has to deal with elderly jokes from late night..

comedians--and I'm sure some of that sticks too. The USA is a mean place.

[Sugarcoated]

20. Exactly

I've been saying that all afternoon. Logic, what is logical to us does not always = smart politics. Obama did the smart thing and the right thing defending himself and his wife. It is offensive and middle America would lose respect for him if he didn't denounce it - I would, too if someone illustrated a hideous caricature of my spouse that way, satire or not. He can nuance it later.

[last_texas_dem]

25. I'm sorry. I won't laugh at cartoons that ridicule the claims of right-wing nuts anymore.

[DeepModem Mom]

30. Right on again, Neshanic. K&R

[Generator]

31. Wait who was it that said

"Obama isn't a Muslim, as far as I know." Winkedy wink. Ah yes, Hillary! It's been so long since I could trash her fairly. And she's on OUR side. OH HA.

I laugh. and laugh and laugh. OH THOSE CLINTON's knee slappers aren't they. OH VEY. Let's face it. We've been FUCKED since at least 1963. The least you can DO IS LAUGH mister! All credit to Carlin. And now you are all dismissed.