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1. 

   7/14/08

   Jeunelle

   PATHETIC...I wonder if american citizens will give him a chance in the oval office at all,
   without all this garbage.

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   1. 

      7/14/08

      Norski

      Quite a good chance. He's roughly even with the Republican nominee, in the polls. ( news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-07/12/content_8532150.htm blog.seattlepi.nwsource.com/seattlepolitics/archives/143421.asp primebuzz.kcstar.com/?q=node/12976 www.transworldnews.com/NewsStory.aspx?id=53328&cat=5 )
      
      Make no mistake: Obama has a better shot at the American presidency than many candidates have.
   2. 

      7/14/08

      Wisco

      Norski,
      
      Actually, if you take state by state polls and assign electoral college votes, Obama has a nice, convincing lead.
      
      blogs.cqpolitics.com/politicalinsider/2008/07/coloring-the-map.html
      
      He's better than even, he's pretty decently ahead.
   3. 

      7/14/08

      Norski

      Wisco,
      
      I believe it. Sixties assumptions notwithstanding, Barack Obama is far from being rejected by the American public.
2. 

   7/14/08

   Jeunelle

   I already posted this at another recent bc discussion but that Afro boy...
   That Afro reminds me of Kathleen Cleaver of the black panther movement.
   www.itsabouttimebpp.com/Women_BPP/images/photo_set1/2_womens_2.html
   
   www.itsabouttimebpp.com/Women_BPP/Women_of_the_BPP_1.html
   
   The New Yorker has me in stitches. I want to burn all New Yorker Magazines. lmao
   I mean here we have possibly the 1st black african american president and this is how we want to portrait him. This is sad. This is a sad day in hell yau'll.

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3. 

   7/14/08

   Norski

   I glanced over your post. More than glanced, actually.
   
   A link to it will probably go in mine on that cover - to even things out, if for no other reason.
   
   You certainly could be right about The New Yorker putting that cover out for the publicity. It's certainly created a lot of buzz.
   
   As for it being an accurate picture of what an Obama presidency will be like, I'm not at all sure. I do not favor Obama's stated and implied policies, for the most part - but I don't think he's quite the comic-opera turncoat that The New Yorker seems to think the 'radical right' see him as.
   
   (Syntactic nightmare, that.)

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4. 

   7/14/08

   rightcommentary

   Eh... I disagree. I think if the picture would have had him smoking his cigarette - it would have gone from comic to realism....

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   1. 

      7/14/08

      Jeunelle

      @rightcommentary... I strongly disagree.
      I hope the New Yorker is prepared for black backlash.
      I see looting and chaos in the future. A burning of all New Yorker Magazines.
      You all wanna talk about teddy bears named after Mohammed, well keep making fun of Obama and we'll see what happens. There maybe a new black panther movement starting. lmao
   2. 

      7/14/08

      Norski

      rightcommentary,
      
      You disagree with - me? or Jeunelle? Or (quite efficiently) with both?
5. 

   7/14/08

   Anok

   I don't particularly find it funny, either. After all of the e mails and hate mail campaigns about Obama - putting something like this on the New Yorker - it is really disrespectful, in context of the racial and religious hatred that has been aimed at him.
   
   I mean, he hasn't even done anything to deserve scornful cartoons yet.
   
   I am glad to hear that the McCain camp also said it was distasteful, if only on paper, anyway.
   
   (And yes, I would have reacted just the same if they had come out with a cartoon of the same callibre about McCain)

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   1. 

      7/14/08

      Donlewis

      True Anok. In point of fact, he hasn't done anything yet. Which makes his place as a candidate a bit of a mystery.
   2. 

      7/14/08

      Norski

      Anok,
      
      Good points all around. One thing, though: "I mean, he hasn't even done anything to deserve scornful cartoons yet." The way America works, just running for president makes scornful cartoons a near-certainty.
      
      I wouldn't be so hard on the McCain campaign. Yes, there have been some really stupid things said: Bob Cunningham's "Barack Hussein Obama" crack ( politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2008/02/26/mccain-distances-himself-from-supp... ) for example. But the 'Barack Obama is the Anti-Christ' stuff is from loose nuts and crackpots.
      
      (I'm not making that Anti-Christ thing up - ( anotherwaronterrorblog.blogspot.com/2008/02/presidential-candidate-named-hu... )).
      
      I don't see evidence that either of the major party candidates for the American presidency is particularly stupid, or prone to character assassination.
      
      Their supporters, that's another story.
      
      For what it's worth, even my email service's de-spaminator hasn't kept all the anti-Obama (and anti-McCain) nonsense away from me. If the election weren't serious, I'd be having a hoot.
   3. 

      7/14/08

      Norski

      Donlewis,
      
      Not really fair. Obama's a top-rate orator. One of the best in the last century, in his own way.
      
      Then, there was what I think was his well-intentioned effort to humanize the natives of Pennsylvania, for that San Francisco fundraising group.
   4. 

      7/14/08

      Donlewis

      No doubt about it Norski. He's a great prepared speech deliverer. World history is full of such who later did great (in the fullest meaning of the word) things!
      
      I'm not so dumb as to actually name any of them, nor do I assume that Senator Obama is likely, simply because of his rhetorical skills, to cause us to participate in "interesting times" as the Chinese put it.
      
      But what I've seen him do, and heard him say; and his associations and his sparse, but leading legislative track record - all make me very nervous
   5. 

      7/14/08

      dlowe

      Why should we expect anything less from a magazine?
      
      Have you seen the cover of the latest psychology today magazine?
      
      psychologytoday.com/pto/issue_current.html
      
      Disgraceful.
   6. 

      7/14/08

      Donlewis

      Psychology Today been acquired by Cosmo?
   7. 

      7/14/08

      rightcommentary

      Norski - if clever rhetoric was leadership - then speechwriters would all be captains of industry...
      
      Being a good toastmaster doesn't necessarily make you a good President.
   8. 

      7/14/08

      Wisco

      Being a good toastmaster doesn't necessarily make you a good President.
      
      I don't know, the guy we've got now can barely string three words together and he sucks as a president. Maybe the reverse is just as true.
6. 

   7/14/08

   timethief

   IMO it's not in the least funny. It's scornful, utterly tasteless, and IMO the New Yorker made a huge error in publishing it. (And yes, like Anok says above I would have reacted just the same if they had come out with a cartoon of the same calibre about McCain.)

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7. 

   7/14/08

   mikermcmillen

   Was it supposed to be funny? I thought it to be an accurate depiction.

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8. 

   7/14/08

   Jeunelle

   You damn right it's not funny, I'm furious.
   Lots of my African American friends are furious to find this crud in this day and age,
   still creeping around and now rearing it's ugly head.
   There are a whole bunch of people I am pissed at, not just the New Yorker.

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   1. 

      7/14/08

      Norski

      As I said in another thread, and with due respect reactions to that over-the-top magazine cover, it could be worse.
      
      They could have drawn the Obamas in blackface.
9. 

   7/14/08

   aeye

   I don't see it as satirical -- or maybe I see it as going to far. Especially in a time when so many people in this nation believe at least one of the things the picture portrays. I almost feel like some people will see the cover and see it as backing up their beliefs because they will not read the article inside.

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10. 

    7/14/08

    mikermcmillen

    With all the heat the New Yorker is getting you would think they are a danish newspaper portraying Muhammad with a bomb in his turban.

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    1. 

       7/14/08

       Jeunelle

       @mikermcmillen...They might as well of, I'm sure they already thought of that one too.
    2. 

       7/14/08

       Wisco

       It's probably the best selling issue they've had in a long time. By that measure, the cover's a huge success.
    3. 

       7/14/08

       rightcommentary

       Well - my views are pretty clear in my post... I personally don't think it's all that outrageous... and I think Obama is a wimp if he can't handle a bit of rough and tumble on the cover of a leftist magazine. I mean - how is he going to face AQ and the enemy if he can't even face the eggheads in his own party...
11. 

    7/14/08

    Jeunelle

    Too bad in order to sell their stupid magazine they have to intentionally hurt someone
    and make a few bucks doing it too.
    Someone this just doesn't look good to me and doesn't sound ethical
    but what else is new in this day and age.

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12. 

    7/14/08

    chatblanc

    Maybe I'm jaded, maybe I'm too Republican; either way I can't say I'm surprised or outraged. As dirty as campaigns get in this day and age, and as aggressive as media are about drumming up public interest, I have to agree that it could have (and may still end up) much worse.
    
    I just thank the Lord that we ALL have the freedom to present how we feel about the candidates, even in a satirical manner.

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