Just when I was getting ready to write that I'd found a way to stop worrying and love Obama, along comes indication we'll all be expected to more or less have our brains out for the November election.

In response to the New Yorker cover lampooning the far right's irrational propagandizing against the Obama campaign, spokesman Bill Burton is quoted all over the press:

“The New Yorker may think, as one of their staff explained to us, that their cover is a satirical lampoon of the caricature Senator Obama’s right-wing critics have tried to create. But most readers will see it as tasteless and offensive. And we agree.”

I think a) most readers will never pick up the New Yorker, b) if the uneducated masses should happen to pick it up, this will make a great "Obama teaching moment." And with all the attention the Obama campaign and its countless Volunteer Information-Stream Controllers are drawing to the cover, one would almost have to think they're planning to do just that. One would hope, anyway.

In the meantime, with the epic proportion of sturm und drang being parlayed around the interwebs demanding Barry Britt's blood and the New Yorker's ink, you'd think someone killed a puppy.

Pendagon writes, with no discernible trace of irony:

"Satire isn't funny when you have to explain it. The main problem with the image is that there’s absolutely no indication of satire involved."

If the typical Obama online supporter continues to imitate Dumas' Felton, I'm going to miss Stewart and Colbert, both.

http://imperialwitness.blogspot.com/