Caricature brings attention, irritation

The cover of the new issue of The New Yorker magazine lampoons the right-wing view of the Obamas. (Chris Hondros/Getty Images)

It may be satirical, but Barack Obama is not amused.

The cover for the latest issue of New Yorker magazine, which hit newsstands yesterday, shows a turban-clad, robed Obama fist-bumping with an Afro-wearing, machine-gun toting Michelle Obama in the middle of the Oval Office. Above the burning hearth - fueled by an American flag - is a partial portrait of terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden.

Obama, asked about it Sunday on the campaign trail, gave an annoyed shrug and said he had no comment.

But his spokesman, Bill Burton, said in a statement, "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."

John McCain, Obama's Republican presidential rival, concurred that the cover was "totally inappropriate, and frankly I understand if Senator Obama and his supporters would find it offensive."

The cartoon is not explained in the July 21 issue, but the magazine said yesterday that the artist, Barry Blitt, is satirizing "the use of scare tactics and misinformation in the presidential election to derail Barack Obama's campaign."

In its statement, the magazine says the cover illustration, titled "The Politics of Fear," combines "a number of fantastical images about the Obamas and shows them for the obvious distortions they are."

"The burning flag, the nationalist-radical and Islamic outfits, the fist-bump, the portrait on the wall? All of them echo one attack or another. Satire is part of what we do, and it is meant to bring things out into the open, to hold up a mirror to prejudice, the hateful, and the absurd. And that's the spirit of this cover," the New Yorker statement said.

The statement also pointed to the two articles on Obama in the magazine, calling them "very serious."

One is a 15,000-word story about Obama's political education and early years in Chicago.

Obama, who is Christian, has long fought rumors that he is secretly a Muslim, a whisper campaign that still persists on the Internet and in e-mail chains.

The cover generated quite a bit of controversy on the Internet.

The Huffington Post, a left-leaning blog, said: "Anyone who's tried to paint Obama as a Muslim, anyone who's tried to portray Michelle as angry or a secret revolutionary out to get Whitey, anyone who has questioned their patriotism - well, here's your image."

But David Remnick, the magazine's editor, said yesterday that he believes the satiric intent will be clear. "The idea is to attack lies and misconceptions and distortions about the Obamas, and their background and their politics," he told CNN. "I think you underestimate the intelligence of the American people, to be quite honest."