Quotes From Around Yon Blogosphere

IF THE SHOE WERE ON THE OTHER FOOT

Sweet mercy me. The New Yorker has offended Barack Obama, John McCain, the New Republic, Jake Tapper, the Huffington Post, and the sensibilities of thousands—maybe millions!—of Americans.

The source of all of this injury is not daring exposé or cutting criticism by a New Yorker writer but one of "them damned pictures"—to quote Boss Tweed of Tammany Hall, who bled pints every time he was poked by Thomas Nast'ss pen. "I don't care so much what the papers say about me," Tweed said of Nast's work. "My constituents can't read. But, damn it, they can see pictures!"

The damned picture riling the country is the cover of The New Yorker's just-released July 21 issue. Drawn by Barry Blitt, it depicts Barack Obama as a Muslim U.S. president knocking knuckles in the Oval Office with his AK-47-toting, Afro-wearing, revolutionary wife, Michelle. Blitt completes the tableau with an American flag roasting in the fireplace and a framed portrait of Osama bin Laden looking down from the wall.

-- JACK SHAFER

You're going to hear a lot of blather over the next 2-3 days about how outrageous [the[ New Yorker -- from pro-Obama types and mainstream media fuddy-duddies, about how this is a shameless ploy to sell magazines, yadda, yadda, yadda. I disagree -- I think this is great satire (that's what New Yorker cartoons are, remember?) of how absurd our political discourse has become, showing just how ridiculous the Obama slurs are by taking them all the way over the top. Do you honestly think there's one American who was planning to vote for Obama who will see this, say "Oh my God, they're terrorists!," and change his or her vote?

If there is, God help us.

-- WILL BUNCH

It's one thing to find the New Yorker Obama cover in questionable taste, but the yahoo-ish invective being aimed at the magazine is over the top. However flawed in the eyes of some, the cover is nevertheless in the best tradition of magazine journalism.

-- ROBERT STEIN

What’s so funny about Barack Obama? Apparently not very much, at least not yet.

On Monday, The New Yorker magazine tried dipping its toe into broad satire involving Senator Obama with a cover image depicting the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee and his wife, Michelle, as fist-bumping, flag-burning, bin Laden-loving terrorists in the Oval Office. The response from both Democrats and Republicans was explosive.

Comedy has been no easier for the phalanx of late-night television hosts who depend on skewering political leaders for a healthy quotient of their nightly monologues. Jay Leno, David Letterman, Conan O'Brien and others have delivered a nightly stream of jokes about the Republican running for president — each one a variant on the same theme: John McCain is old.

But there has been little humor about Mr. Obama: about his age, his speaking ability, his intelligence, his family, his physique. And within a late-night landscape dominated by white hosts, white writers, and overwhelmingly white audiences, there has been almost none about his race.

-- BILL CARTER

David Remnick flatters himself when he claims that the Obama cover is "Colbert in print." Heh, you wish brother. That said, people who are canceling subscriptions are ridiculous. I am obviously biased, but seriously--I'll take Jane Mayer over Wolf Blitzer any day.

-- TA-NEHISI COATES

Sunday morning, we were talking about the offensively sexist jokes the comedian Bernie Mac told at a Barack Obama fund-raiser. Suddenly, this inflammatory New Yorker cover appears and everyone is distracted. The Bernie Mac material was Obama's responsibility, and it offended women and those who are sensitive about sexual material. The New Yorker material was not attributable to Obama, was actually an attack on Obama's opponents, and yet nevertheless gave Obama the opportunity to play the an outraged victim of a scurrilous attack.

Wasn't that convenient?

-- ANN ALTHOUSE

Obviously, the New Yorker wanted to go for satire, poking fun at what they see as the image of the Obamas among conservatives. Just as obviously, the editors of the New Yorker showed very poor judgment in approving this cover. A satirical cartoon on the inside would have been more appropriate, but having this on the cover shouldn’t just offend the Obamas, but also conservatives who have a number of substantial issues with Barack Obama.

-- ED MORRISSEY

There is not much the members of the liberal blogosphere and I agree on but I salute them on their efforts to stamp out humor and especially satire and bring more earnestness to our political discourse. The readers of The Daily Kos have been especially vigilant in their War Against Comedy and I commend them for it. I hope that the conservative blogosphere, which sometimes succumbs to very awkward and embarrassing attempts at humor, but fortunately is usually not funny at all, will join with liberals in this crusade. This past week, in fact, both campaigns learned that comedy and presidential politics don't mix. I hope that we can spend the rest of the campaign with the candidates and their surrogates not trying to be funny especially since we are living in very unfunny times. Elections are serious things and there is no room for levity in such a process unless that levity has been carefully scripted by a campaign speechwriter and sometimes not even then.

-- JON SWIFT

Cartoon by David Horsey/Seattle Post-Intelligencer