Posted By: jack sprat on Friday, July 18, 2008
Pat,There has to be a target audience smart enough to get the jest, unfortunately the "jest" was too close the truth and the exaggerations, not exaggerated enough. The 'toonist should just have not gone for it, back fired and reinforced what the obama's have reinforced as a general persona.Untrue, undoubtedly, in too few regards. It was successful in showing who the dolts really are.
Posted By: Jonathan Colb on Saturday, July 19, 2008
I'm not a big fan of Pat Buchanan, but this time he's right. It really is only a cartoon. It's ink on paper. Let's calm down and keep some perspective on this: out of all the things in the world, to worry about, this shouldn't even show up on the radar.
Posted By: Shinji on Saturday, July 19, 2008
I think this is the ultimate result of affirmative action. The angry reaction is a manifestation of the 'We musn't offend' pc bullshit that's been pumped into our heads for the last 20 years. I mean no offense to the guy, he seems compentent in his own right, but I think the reason he's getting treated with kid gloves is due to the simple fact that he's black. Everytime you criticize one of them they play the race card. And don't tell me it doesn't happen.
Posted By: geoff on Saturday, July 19, 2008
Shinji: what are you suggesting? that those "uppity N-s" go back to knowing their place (i.e. the "back of the bus")? Obama is not being treated with kid gloves: he has gone through "Osama" "mistakes", emphasis on his middle name (like Lee Harvey Oswald & Hillary Rodham Clinton but not George W. Bush, etc.), blow-ups over lapel pins, "terrorist hand jabs," suggestions he's Muslim, gay, born in Kenya, etc.Otherwise your language gives you away: "everytime you criticize one of them they play the race card." At other times, other bigots have used the same statement about women, Jews or whatever other minority they've targeted. You just don't like the idea of equality, do you?
Posted By: Mat B. on Saturday, July 19, 2008
This cartoon showed us just how stupid we have become. When someone satirizing racists is called a racist, much like what has happened to Mark Twain, you know we've gone too far into insanity. Oh, and Geoff, don't be afraid of saying what you think. You think she's calling him an uppity nigger. It's a word. Mark Twain used it for satire.
Posted By: Shinji on Sunday, July 20, 2008
Bigoted? Yes, but true nonetheless.
Posted By: NS on Sunday, July 20, 2008
While Buchanan's anti-liberal bias is showing, he's right about one thing - It's just a cartoon! It's satire, which is the political cartoonist's job. Given the response this cover got, I'd say the cartoonist did an excellent job.
Posted By: geoff on Sunday, July 20, 2008
Shinji: true about what? you not liking equality? or making a sweeping generalization based on a stereotype? like white people can't dance? that all Americans are fat, loud, wear Bermuda shorts & drive SUVs?
About the race card. And I'm not basing it on stereo types, although I can see where you're coming from. I'm basing it on my own personal experience. I can count on one hand the number of black people who haven't given me the "It's cause I'm black right?" line of defense when you call them on something. Is that true for everyone? No, but it's true for me, and I shape my views based on what I observe...not what I want the ideal to be.
Posted By: jack sprat on Sunday, July 20, 2008
geoff Like all Germans are Nazi Aryan racists who hate any one? As I recall you once said you were a bit concerned while walking through a black neighborhood, does that make you a bigot or a racist, or does your obvious distaste for Americans in general and conservatives in particular. Ferraro expressed the same sentiment as Shinji, does that make one of the left’s tireless and most strident defenders a racist. Unlike Shinji I have had a bit more luck in speaking with Americans of African decent, I try to speak to the one’s that are adult enough to carry on a conversation. In one such frank conversation, the young man admitted that in his words, “blacks are probably more racist”, I would disagree with him. As humans we “all fall short of the glory of God” and have our own battles to fight against the beast in ourselves.I know you mean well, but frankly your bigotry for many “types” consistently shows through.I'm assuming you were offended by the 'toon as racist.
Posted By: Senior Citizen on Sunday, July 20, 2008
There is NO way any of us can generalize every person, place or position. I don't care to even go near the PC issue. My values are more of the stuff we were taught by our parents, Sunday School and elders we came to respect for their concern. Yell your heart out at a ball game but whisper in the library. Those who appreciate respect and consideration can fol.low my line of thought. A time and place for everything is true. We can't stop locker room jokes but those who enjoy them could have the decency to keep them in the locker room. Call it "just a piece of paper", satire, humor, whatever. If folks who enjoy the New Yorker like that type of put-down surely they can laugh at it in the centerfold. Several prominent magazines seem to prosper with their cartoons and jokes inside the cover. Personally I found that cover disgusting and offensive from any perspective. 1 those who
Posted By: trinka on Monday, July 21, 2008
Obama's my candidate and I feel compelled to say that I think it's perfectly within bounds to satirize any part of him & his campaign (including Michelle) that one chooses. Really - he's not above the fray. We live in a country of free speech and I love that about America.The issue for me was that the cover seemed to say that this cartoon represented the New Yorker magazine's viewpoint. That's what I was shocked by. I've never read the magazine so I don't know it's bent, liberal or conservative. Political cartoons represent the artist's viewpoint. Without a caption indicating the artist thought this image of the Obamas to be ridiculous, it's not outside the boubds of reason to conclude that the image was the New Yorker's editorial opinion.As someone who happens to think these rumors of the Obamas as absurd, I am also concerned that others who do believe these things and don't read the "news" to get the New Yorker's explaination, might also think the magazine is endorsing this viewpoint. Someone say, just walking by a news stand and only seeing the image.Bottom line - it's ok to make fun of the Obamas if that's how you see them. If that cartoon was in fact making fun of those who see the Obamas that way - there should have been a caption or somthing to indicate that clearly.
