I'd suggest that if you go by Molly Ivins standard (its funny when you make fun of people with power. its not funny when you make fun of people who don't have power) then Obama is completely fair game for the New Yorker or anyone else that wants to fake being funny on any given day of the week.
Obama has the Daley machine behind him. That may not seem like much on the East or West Coast but it has had substantial impact in Chicago and has screwed up more than one Presidential Election in the past.
Here is Daley the elder's response to Police that were in his opinion taking it too easy on African American rioters in Chicago following the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.
"I said to him very emphatically and very definitely that an order be issued by him immediately to shoot to kill any arsonist or anyone with a Molotov cocktail in his hand, because they're potential murderers, and to shoot to maim or cripple anyone looting."
That's the founder of the political machine that Obama works for and so its not terribly surprising when a number of Democrats today also get a little worried about the type of change that Barack Obama might bring to the White House. He may not appear to fit the mold, but he's got the deck about as stacked as you can get, he's more old school politician than Bill Clinton ever was by comparison.
The thing about satire and humor is that they usually only work when there is some truth behind them. So when a person looks at the New Yorker, if they see no truth in the image, its just not funny. Its pretty much nothing.
If a person looks at the cover and maybe unscrambles the secret code using a captain crunch decoder overlay, and realizes that this is supposedly about the deployment of fear politics against Obama then it might ring true just a bit and some one might find a little humor in it.
Absent any truth or truistic truism however, its just a little portion of complete fiction and in that its a waste of media.
Now as to the claims that various people make against Obama because of his name, his religion etc.
I personally don't care at all.
The reality is that he has the name that he has, and that name brings with it associations with islam even if Barack Obama himself claims no association.
His parents gave him a muslim name and so people are going to contemplate that implication from here until the cows come home. I find it extremely childish on his part that he tries to hide away from the fact that he has a middle name. He makes some pretty good jokes about his last name, but seems to fear joking about his own middle name more than sharing pictures of Michelle posing in sexy nurse costumes.
That seems to highlight a personality flaw to me. Don't get me wrong, everyone is entitled to personality flaws, but in a Presidential candidate having a personality flaw that manifests in a fear of one's own middle name is definitely a weakness that political opponents will exploit.
Its kind of like that grade school bullying technique. If a bully picks on you and you cry, the bully will probably keep picking on you. Well, Obama has shown that when people pick on him about this issue, he will cry over and over again, and that is just going to incite more attacks. Its kind of strange that a person that is so adept in deflecting attack after attack can't seem to rise to the occasion to defend himself over a name that he has probably had to defend his entire life.
I think the New Yorker magazine cover is far less controversial and far less harmful than Barack Obama's vote for FISA. If anything indicates that Barack Obama is a terrorist, its not his name or the way he looks, or the way he tags his wife in public, but IT IS the way he threw the Constitution under the bus and gave George W Bush the signal to hit the gas. That is as much of a terrorist act as I've seen from anyone with a name that rhymes with Obama.
Obama has the Daley machine behind him. That may not seem like much on the East or West Coast but it has had substantial impact in Chicago and has screwed up more than one Presidential Election in the past.
Here is Daley the elder's response to Police that were in his opinion taking it too easy on African American rioters in Chicago following the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.
"I said to him very emphatically and very definitely that an order be issued by him immediately to shoot to kill any arsonist or anyone with a Molotov cocktail in his hand, because they're potential murderers, and to shoot to maim or cripple anyone looting."
That's the founder of the political machine that Obama works for and so its not terribly surprising when a number of Democrats today also get a little worried about the type of change that Barack Obama might bring to the White House. He may not appear to fit the mold, but he's got the deck about as stacked as you can get, he's more old school politician than Bill Clinton ever was by comparison.
The thing about satire and humor is that they usually only work when there is some truth behind them. So when a person looks at the New Yorker, if they see no truth in the image, its just not funny. Its pretty much nothing.
If a person looks at the cover and maybe unscrambles the secret code using a captain crunch decoder overlay, and realizes that this is supposedly about the deployment of fear politics against Obama then it might ring true just a bit and some one might find a little humor in it.
Absent any truth or truistic truism however, its just a little portion of complete fiction and in that its a waste of media.
Now as to the claims that various people make against Obama because of his name, his religion etc.
I personally don't care at all.
The reality is that he has the name that he has, and that name brings with it associations with islam even if Barack Obama himself claims no association.
His parents gave him a muslim name and so people are going to contemplate that implication from here until the cows come home. I find it extremely childish on his part that he tries to hide away from the fact that he has a middle name. He makes some pretty good jokes about his last name, but seems to fear joking about his own middle name more than sharing pictures of Michelle posing in sexy nurse costumes.
That seems to highlight a personality flaw to me. Don't get me wrong, everyone is entitled to personality flaws, but in a Presidential candidate having a personality flaw that manifests in a fear of one's own middle name is definitely a weakness that political opponents will exploit.
Its kind of like that grade school bullying technique. If a bully picks on you and you cry, the bully will probably keep picking on you. Well, Obama has shown that when people pick on him about this issue, he will cry over and over again, and that is just going to incite more attacks. Its kind of strange that a person that is so adept in deflecting attack after attack can't seem to rise to the occasion to defend himself over a name that he has probably had to defend his entire life.
I think the New Yorker magazine cover is far less controversial and far less harmful than Barack Obama's vote for FISA. If anything indicates that Barack Obama is a terrorist, its not his name or the way he looks, or the way he tags his wife in public, but IT IS the way he threw the Constitution under the bus and gave George W Bush the signal to hit the gas. That is as much of a terrorist act as I've seen from anyone with a name that rhymes with Obama.
Mobile post sent by brettbum using Utterz.
No comments:
Post a Comment