"Tasteless and Offensive"

The July 21 cover of the New Yorker Magazine shows a cartoon of Barack and Michelle Obama fist-bumping in the Oval Office, but what's offensive about the cartoon is the fact that he's dressed as a Muslim, she's dressed as a '60s Black Nationalist with a semiautomatic rifle slung over her shoulder, and they're standing in front of a fireplace burning the American flag with a picture of bin Laden over the mantlepiece. Nice.

Of course, the New Yorker calls the cartoon a satire, and that the article inside the magazine is favorable to the Obamas. But how many people walking past magazine racks and newstands will see the cartoon, never read the article, and form a different opinion? Millions perhaps, and that's the problem. Also, shouldn't the subjects of the satire be the wingnuts who are spreading the false rumors, not the Obamas?

The Obama campaign called the cover "tasteless and offensive." (To their credit, the McSame campaign agreed). "Stupid" would be an additional adjective that we'd choose.