Obama, the Muslim with a Terrorist Wife

On the cover of the July 21, 2008 issue of The New Yorker magazine is the picture above. It depicts Barak Obama in Muslim clothes doing a fist-bump with his wife, who has one hand on her hip and is dressed up as a Afro-wearing, gun-toting terrorist. The scene is set in the Oval office with the American flag burning in the fireplace. Above the fireplace is a partially hidden picture of a bearded Muslim resembling Osama Bin Laden. The New Yorker magazine describes the cover as satire:

"Satire is a part of what we do, and it is meant to bring things out in the open, to hold a mirror to prejudice, the hateful and the absurd."

Well if that was the intention......Boy, did they miss the mark! When people were shown the picture, the vast majority thought it was in bad taste. The Obama campaign said: ".....most readers will see it as tasteless and offensive. And we agree." John McCain said "I think it is totally inappropriate and frankly I understand if Senator Obama and his supporters would find it offensive."

Below are two video clips that examine the controversy from different perspectives:

[youtube=http://youtube.com/watch?v=FYSvaFF1VcE]

[youtube=http://youtube.com/watch?v=pviWTqq8SoE]

When Eileen Hafner looked at the political cartoon on the cover of the New Yorker magazine, her jaw dropped:

"I'm really offended by it," Hafner, 55, of Bay Shore, said. "I plan on voting for McCain, but even still, I can't believe they would go there," she said of the magazine.

Others had similar reactions:

"There is nothing funny about it," said Valerie Melhado, 47, of West Babylon. "And the Osama bin Laden painting on the wall in the corner -- that just gave me chills."

"If they did something of equal tastelessness about Bush or Cheney, I could say that I liked it," Zipkin, of Bay Shore, said. "A lot of people are just gonna see the turban and think poorly of Obama and his wife. Quite honestly," Zipkin added, "I find it offensive to my intelligence."

However, some people saw it differently:

"I think it's pretty comical," DiMaggio, 84, said. "I don't know much about his background, but he's not going to win anyway. This won't change that."

"I think the picture depicted them the way they really are," said Denise Demichele of Bay Shore, who plans to vote for McCain, the Republican candidate, for president. "They're way too militant."

In a published email to The Huffington Post, cartoonist Barry Blitt wrote, "I think the idea that the Obamas are branded as unpatriotic [let alone as terrorists] in certain sectors is preposterous. It seemed to me that depicting the concept would show it as the fear-mongering ridiculousness that it is."

I want to know what you think. Is it, in the words of Shakespeare "Much ado about nothing" or were you offended by the imagery? Please post your thoughts in the comments section of this blog.