Barack Obama’s campaign is fed up and they aren’t going to take it anymore. This time they are taking on that bastion of right-wing vitriol known as The New Yorker. It’s all over that picture you see to the left. The New Yorker made the now common mistake of thinking that satire could be used for satirical purposes. The simple-minded fools. Nevermind the incredible piece of reporting on Obama’s background in Chicago politics that the issue contains. It’s all about the cover and they know it.
The cover clearly shows the Muslim candidate and his America-hating terrorist wife doing what is now known as a “terrorist fist bump.” And I’m not even talking about the American flag burning in the fireplace. It shows all that. It is also clearly poking fun at each and every element of itself. Every image is carefully culled from one or more of the ridiculous rumors that have swirled around Obama for his entire campaign.
Why this cover should upset the Obama campaign is beyond me. The image comes on the front of a magazine that has one of the most liberal readerships of any in the nation. Is there anyone that thinks The New Yorker’s sympathies lie with the McCain campaign? Really? If The New Yorker magazine had a vote it would be cast for Obama and everyone in the country knows it.
The problem here is a campaign that has shifted from inspirational to calculating, from historic to pedestrian, from in-on-the-joke to out-of-the-loop. That’s why you haven’t spotted a black supporter standing behind Obama since… well, since ever. That’s why, in the midst of a riff about Obama’s trotting out a faux presidential seal, Jon Stewart had to re-assure his audience that it was alright to laugh at Obama also. The candidate who stepped onto the national stage as the most invigorating voice in modern electoral history is quickly losing the ability to laugh at himself.
In his general election incarnation, Obama is working to prove his seriousness, his gravitas, his resolve. Instead he is proving to be wooden, dull, and uninspiring. What do you do with an inspirational leader who has lost the ability to move a crowd? The mistake here is that no one ever expected him to be the heavy-lifting guy. He was supposed to be the ideas guy, the masterful salesman that was going to move us in the direction we should go and convince us that it was the right thing to do.
But that guy has left the building. Instead, general election Obama is seemingly trying to out-boring his formidably boring GOP counterpart. He has bogged down in the details of campaigning, controlling the pictures, staying on message. The Obama that doesn’t get the joke of The New Yorker cover is not the guy we fell in love with. I’m getting a feeling that guy isn’t coming back. And that’s too bad, because that’s the guy I wanted to vote for.
July 23rd, 2008 at 9:04 am
I must say that I totally agree! I’m terribly disappointed and am wrestling now with who I want to support. I’m a liberal, but most definitely a conservative liberal (if you can believe that ) and Obama is starting to leave MUCH to be desired….