My jaw pretty much hit the floor when I saw the cover of the July 21 New Yorker.
(Photo from The Politico story, here)
I mean… an Afro-wearing, AK47-slingin’, boot-stompin’ Michelle fist bumpin’ a Muslim Barack in the Oval Office? With Osama AND a burning American flag? Couldn’t the artist jam any more paranoia into one cartoon?
ZOMG!!!!!
Obviously it’s satire (though I confess, my first reaction was WTF?).
Just as obviously, some bozo is going to point at that cover and say, “See! Told you! The New Yorker gets it! The Obama’s are out destroy the country and turn us all into Muslims!”
*snort*
Anybody who thinks that cover is even remotely close to reality isn’t much on critical thought anyway, so why bother worrying about it? In fact, the best Barack Obama could do with this is laugh at it.
Unfortunately, he’d be laughing at an unfortunate number of possibly future constituents who do, in fact, buy into the entire “Scary Muslim” meme…. which would then feed into the “elitist” meme… which might remotely somehow connect up with the “talks down to black people” meme….
Sigh…
May as well laugh. Seriously.
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Added: This is blowing up in the blogosphere pretty impressively for a Sunday night.
As satire, it’s funny.
The fact that it’s the biggest news in Blogsylvania says something and it’s nothing hopeful.
Why are Angela Davis and Obama Bin Laden in the Oval Office?
Nature abhors a vacuum and until Obama clearly defines himself these type of characterizations will continue. I like “hopeful” people but you have to show me more than that to get my vote in November. Still open minded in CA.
I keep hearing people saying that Obama needs to define himself, but I’m just not understanding what’s missing.
For me, Obama’s been a pretty straight-forward read from the get-go. I hear your concern, but I really can’t connect to it. Can you maybe verbalize what it is you’re unsettled about?
On the energy issue, is Barrack for or against domestic oil extraction? Does he support an expansion of nuclear power plants? Does he have a short-term plan or does he simply favor reliance on wind, solar and hybrid vehicle solutions?
Regarding the illegal immigrant issue does he favor amnesty for those already in residence? What’s his position on a border fence and other forms of border security? Is he going to continue to use our tax payer dollars to fund entitlement programs for illegals and if so, to what degree?
How does he plan to bring an end to the war in Iraq? Does he support a continued military presence in the Middle East to help stabilize the region or will he pull out as we did in Viet Nam and allow the country to fall into a true civil war or takeover by Iran?
He wants to provide universal health care but does he have any idea how that might be structured, what it will cost, and the impact on how health is currently provided?
He continually states that he wants to change the Country. What does he want to change?
And finally, other than being a man of “hope and vision”, what has he done in his past that portends he is qualified for the job of President of The United States? What are his qualifications? What experiences has he had that prepared him for the job?
To me, the man is a blank slate. I want to see more substance and I want to see him articulate his “vision” without relying upon a teleprompter.
I have some of the same concerns for McCain, not just picking on Obama.
Polimom, here’s another example. Headlines today, Obama promises to rid the world of nuclear weapons. My simple question is “how”. How will he get the Russians, the Chinese, the French, the British and the Israelis to comply? To me this sounds hollow and immature. Kind of like a Miss America contestant declaring that she wants to end world hunger.
Obama has said quite a lot on these topics, and been providing position papers on them – available to anybody with a web browser and the will to read something – for a long time. In fact, it was the specifics of his health care proposal that you’re saying don’t exist that were the cause of much debate between him and Clinton.
On the nuclear weapons matter: he didn’t “promise to rid of the world” of them, because that would be a stupid promise; he said it was a goal. He’s been talking about it for a long time, in many cases supporting bipartisan proposals on the issue. He’s written position papers on how he’d approach it.
Maybe you need to spend more time studying what candidates have actually said? Sometimes the blank slate isn’t at the candidate end of the equation.