WTF?

Good lord. I just saw the new cover of the New Yorker. I believe the intention of the cover artist was to portray the absurdity of the right wing-caricatures of Barack Obama, but the problem is that merely repeating a caricature without offering any particular insight into it is a terrible way to demonstrate absurdity.

Worse, the cover is visually compelling. Rather than raising questions about the wingers, it raises questions about the Obamas. It's an image we'll probably be seeing the right-wing appropriate over the course of the campaign. If that happens, the only ironic thing about the cover will turn out to have been it's complete and total failure to achieve its desired effect.

Update: And purely from a political perspective, the pathetic thing about it is that if someone wants Barack Obama to win the presidency, they ought to have the brains to realize this campaign is not a referendum on the rumors about him. This campaign is a referendum on the direction this country will take after George Bush. Will we continue along the same general path, or will we chart a new course? That's what it comes down to.