When Art Gives Offense

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Magazine's 'Satirical' Obama Cover Stirs Outrage

A satirical New Yorker magazine cover cartoon depicting Barack Obama and his wife as flag-burning, fist-bumping radicals drew outrage from the Democratic presidential candidate's campaign as it appeared on newsstands Monday.

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"There is no comedic 'take' on him, nothing easy to turn to for an easy laugh, like allegations of Bill Clinton's womanizing, or President Bush's goofy bumbling or Al Gore's robotic persona.

" 'The thing is, he's not buffoonish in any way,' said Mike Barry, who started writing political jokes for Johnny Carson's monologues in the waning days of the Johnson administration and has lambasted every presidential candidate since, most recently for Mr. Letterman. 'He's not a comical figure,' Mr. Barry said."

Hey, give us time.

Meanwhile, the media's veep-vetting continues. TNR's Jonathan Cohn is uneasy about Sen. Jack Reed, who's supposedly in the mix because he's going to Iraq with Obama--a rather thin, ah, reed if you ask me:

"What's giving me pause? Reed's appearance on ABC News 'This Week' last Sunday. He was there as an Obama surrogate, squaring off against Joe Lieberman, who was speaking for John McCain. And Reed was, I thought, terrible. Over and over again, Lieberman made harsh accusations about Obama--that Obama was irresponsible, radically changing his positions, etc. And Reed seemed capable neither of answering those criticisms or launching similar ones against McCain. (And, no, this is not because Lieberman was right; mostly, I thought, Lieberman was wrong.)

"It's no secret that Reed isn't the most lively and exciting speaker. And, by itself, that's not a huge deal, since Obama has enough charisma for the entire ticket. If anything, picking a reserved, steady running mate might help Obama assuage voters who find the prospect of electing such a young and dynamic candidate unnerving.

"But debating ability is an essential skill for the vice president, and not just in the campaign: A successful president needs a surrogate who can fight for him. Charisma may not be important, but the ability to hit back against critics is--particularly for somebody like Obama, whose appeal rests in part on his ability to transcend (or, at least, to seem to transcend) such fights."

I wonder if Reed even knows he's trying out--in the media's eyes.

Talking Points Memo unearths an e-mail exchange between the AP's Ron Fournier, now its Washington bureau chief, and Karl Rove. The subject was fallen soldier Pat Tillman. Rove had asked: "How does our country continue to produce men and women like this."

Fournier's reply: "The Lord creates men and women like this all over the world. But only the great and free countries allow them to flourish. Keep up the fight."

Finally, unlike some previous GOP presidential candidates, McCain passed up the chance to take a pop at the news media in this NYT interview:

"Easiest thing for me to do in my life is to complain about the media. That's the easiest thing to do, I enjoy it, it makes me feel so much better, and I feel persecuted, and picked on -- No! Look, this isn't beanbag, this is a tough business. I've just got to go on with my campaign and put one foot ahead of the other. The media in America, I think, at the end of the day, is going to judge all of us as fairly as possible because I think most of the media -- of course not all, look, not all politicians are honest, not all mayors are good mayors, OK, but I think at the end of the day most journalists, particularly those are involved in national campaigns, are interested in journalistic standards and reporting the facts to the American people.''

And while McCain hasn't yet mastered the art of getting online himself, he says his aides show him Drudge, Politico and Real Clear Politics. Talk about a free plug!