After an informal survey of friends and colleagues, I’d say that I’m definitely in the minority of finding this cartoon successful as satire. I saw the image Sunday night on Drudge Report before the issue hit the newsstands and my immediate response was a knowing smile. I understood the artist’s intentions and found the artwork mildly amusing. Putting an ear to the streets the next day, I heard quite a lot of vitriol and admonishment aimed at editor David Remnick and The New Yorker. Hearing how the cover provoked such a visceral response in some was a bit surprising. I didn’t find it offensive, not to Obama, not to blacks and not to Muslims. I just thought it was satire. If you looked up 'liberal magazine' in the dictionary, it'd say: 'see: The New Yorker'. So it never crossed my mind for an instant that this was some kind of dig at Obama.
I’ve heard some fairly cogent responses as to why it was ineffective satire. The most persuasive argument was that the image was too close to mimicry (indeed, but considering the absurdity of the allegations, it's hard to figure how much room there is left to exaggerate things). Fair enough. The only thing I didn't agree with was this defensive hand-wringing suggesting that the left-wing media better behave itself lest we surrender yet another presidential election. If there are voters out there who will look at the New Yorker cover and go, "Yup, I knew it.", chances are they weren't voting for Obama to begin with. As I've said before, this country gets the elected officials it deserves.
Last thought: instead of being outraged, I wish the Obama camp would have used this to bring up the much more widespread problem of Islamophobia in the U.S. Alas, I don’t think that’s somewhere any public official wants to go right now. Unless you’re working from the fringe of politics, some battles just aren’t prudent to engage in. As I get older and start really paying attention to how these things work, the more likely I find myself thinking about living out my final days in the Siberian tundra.
P.S. - I am curious as to what a successful satire of Obama as Islamo-Manchurian Candidate would look like.
