How you interpret this month’s New Yorker magazine, which satirically portrays Barack Obama as a Muslim terrorist, says more about you, then it does about Obama or even the artist that drew it.
It’s the ultimate political Rorschach test. And what the paranoid leftists over at the Huffington Post see is a smoking gun: “Because it’s got all the scare tactics and misinformation that has so far been used to derail Barack Obama’s campaign — all in one handy illustration. Anyone who’s tried to paint Obama as a Muslim, anyone who’s tried to portray Michelle as angry or a secret revolutionary out to get Whitey, anyone who has questioned their patriotism— well, here’s your image.”
Now I know there’s some dumb people out there, but do you honestly think some guy’s gonna see this cartoon and go “Ah Ha! I knew it,” as though it were proof. This preemptive demonizing is nothing new though. During the Pennsylvania primary the Huffington Post claimed that people who voted for Hillary Clinton did so only because they were racist (see post).
Naturally, we can expect a “special comment” on this from Keith Olbermann tonight. He’ll undoubtedly try to compare it to racist cartoons of the past, and claim Michelle’s wild, untamed hair, gun, and fist bump are fear-mongering allusions to the Black Panther party. And just as he attacked Hillary Clinton for “giving the Republicans ammunition” so too will he attack the New Yorker.
I’d like to know where all these high-minded liberals were when President Bush was being painted as a vampire sucking the blood out of Lady Liberty? Was that tasteful?
