Terrorist Fist Bump, Continued

Jon Swift on the New Yorker cover cartoon about Obama -- which must, it seems, be debated until everyone passes out:

My first impression on seeing this cover was that the New Yorker had written an exposé revealing that Barack Obama is indeed a Muslim, Michelle Obama was a member of the Black Panthers (or the Mod Squad) and that the Obamas hate America and burn American flags in their fireplace. Then David Remnick, the editor of the New Yorker, issued a statement saying that the illustration is actually intended to be satire, a decadent form of humor invented by the Romans shortly before their civilization was overrun by barbarians.

I loved the illustration, which I thought was a very powerful statement about how Barack Obama should not be elected President, and as Jonah Goldberg noted, it could have been a cover illustration for the National Review, which used to be called the Harvard Lampoon before it went national and changed its name.....Real Americans, I think, prefer straight talkers, like John McCain, who means what he says when he tells us that he doesn't know very much about economics, can't figure out how to use a computer and believes that we will be in Iraq for 100 years.

Sometimes reading Jon Swift is like being held down and tickled. This is one of those times.

July 16, 2008 7:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

5 Comments

By Shane Taylor on July 16, 2008 9:25 PM

Then David Remnick, the editor of the New Yorker, issued a statement saying that the illustration is actually intended to be satire, a decadent form of humor invented by the Romans shortly before their civilization was overrun by barbarians.

Swift deserves the final word. It is a shame there had to be any.

This week has made for jarring blog reading. The finance blogs describe a banana republic, but the progie blogs are just bananas.

By Gig Brown on July 17, 2008 11:27 AM

The cover by the New Yorker reinforces the reality that the American media and the country itself both have a long way to go, not only on issues of racial and cultural bias and ignorance, but also on simple human decency.

By Spamzatura on July 17, 2008 11:51 AM

Oh, how right you are, Gig Brown!

I also think it is perfectly horrible that Swift thinks we should eat Irish babies. Does that sound like simple human decency? Not to me!

No matter how tasty it might be, I will not be having any.

By Hawaiipawn on July 17, 2008 4:14 PM

I think I have a sense of humor. But I believe when the said cover is presented as it was, it looks like someone's opinion. Maybe I would have drawn the same cover for a smirky yuk but at least I would have had someone akin to those now using the cover to say,"I told you so...", holding, drawing, distributing,or hiding it under their mattress.

By nnyhav on July 20, 2008 5:15 PM

Today's NYTimes Week in Review commentary, otherwise disposable (sprezzatura byline gave that away), included a Grosz illustration incorporating a donkey at the trough. Picture worth 1000 words.