Obama = Osama, McCain = Zombie.

While I am not personally offended by the newest cover of “The New Yorker,” I do believe that the cartoon, featuring Barack Obama and his wonderfully stylish (and just generally wonderful) Michelle, is slightly problematic for a multitude of reasons.  While ”The New Yorker” is meant to provoke thought — in this case, a satire of the images of Obama and his wife that the far right and or uninformed wish to convey — it is problematic due to the fact that the cover is entirely based in false beliefs, except for the fact that we have seen the Obamas bump fists.

Sketches and political cartoons from every era show that no one is really safe from being displayed in caricature form.  Just think of everyone fairly recently from Howard Dean and images of his screech to Al Gore and his lock box and yes, even completely tasteless images of John McCain as a POW.  However, while as disgusting or funny or just generally ‘whatever’ these images might be, they are usually based in some reality.  The reality of the ”New Yorker” cover is just the reality of lies which is what makes it so tricky to a lot of people.

The fact of the matter is that pretty much any idiot can identify what this cover is trying to say.  I firmly believe that the majority are not going to look at the cover and think to themselves, “Obama IS a terrorist?!?!” Americans aren’t THAT stupid.  The minority in the country who actually own the belief that Obama = Osama a) probably do not read ”The New Yorker” or know what it is, b) would probably not vote for Obama to begin with, C) may very well not even vote at all (although it is not entirely safe to make this assumption).

At the same time, however, there are several right wingers out there who are trying to convey that very message.  Similarly, there are rhetorical slip ups that are causing people to recoil or cringe in certain ways.  Think of Matt Lauer calling Osama Obama… Notice the differences if you google “Barack Hussein Obama” versus simply googling “Barack Obama.” Simply think of people’s reactions to the fist bump… Something I actually found quite endearing.

All of those things are part of a recipe that allows for an image like the video below to become part of the cover for “The New Yorker”: