You have got to be shitting me! was there an article explaining the cover?

this is what i've got so far: (they're all bloggish and nothing official from the new yorker) so far no mention on their home page:

not to mention this () article will be included in that issue...which makes the "pure satire" argument a tough pill to swallow. the above article (warning it's very long) is a true, deep look into obama's political life. it's both encouraging and questioning. it seeks to bring the reader closer to who obama is and farther from who we want obama to be. while i'm personally heartened to know that he's more adept at maneuvering through political circumstances than i initially thought (and which was why i initially thought hillary would be a more effective president given her skills in that department), there are plenty of people who will not support an obama candidacy unless he is an idealogue. blargh.

here's a good essay about how Obama is NOT a progressive but we should support him anyways. The alternative is just frightening. Thanks for the link, I cannot believe I hadn't seen it yet and yet it is already blogged about all over tarnation.

thanks for that link! i'm really heartened to hear that viewpoint is being pushed forward. being a bit more of a centrist myself it's actually reassuring to see him lighten up a little on the rhetoric, though i know that's not the general consensus (though i do NOT agree with his vote on FISA, for the record). yet despite my personal views i know the democrats have a habit of taking their own to town before the opposition has a chance to. it would be nice if we could put a stop to that!

thanks... I can just imagine how happy this cover makes all the right-wingers!!

You think that makes right wingers happy?

Definitely You know some people will not get that this is satire and it will just confirm what they already think about the Obamas.

yes, because it's all about quick sound bites someone who is a low-information voter could likely see the cover on a newsstand. it reinforces their simple association of obama and muslim, which the right has tried hard to cultivate. they know that people deeply informed about the race will get it (both sides), it's just those that vote on the basis of sound bites that you have to worry about. the cover confirms the sound bites that the right has floated already.

Exactly!

since satire goes over the head of the majority of the public (b/c nowdays few adults reach Piaget's final stage of cognition thanks to television), most people who see the NYer cover are going to take it as face value and as confirmation of the darkest fears about Obama. Given that, I am sure right wingers are creaming themselves. I think it was a misstep by the NYer which overestimates readers' intelligence.

I think the average New Yorker reader is fairly well read and educated. I mean, it ain't no Reader's Digest but...

true but this cover will be absolutely everywhere. Even Fox news! So it won't be just readers of the NYer.

Exactly.

Again, it's gone WAY beyond the readership of the New Yorker already.

You can certainly roll it up and include it in your daily backpack. (Lord knows, I caught intense shit for knowing this...)

it's a cover. it's on newsstands. people see it.

Amen. Yet again.

holy.hell.