New Yorker Brouhaha

About the New Yorker cartoon that has everyone in a tizzy - it's a joke. It's an over-the-top joke, and it assumes a certain level of sophistication in its audience. It's in the New Yorker, after all. The artist, Barry Blitt, had a hit cover previously showing Ahmadinejad in a NYC bathroom stall being victim to toe-tapping from Larry Craig. He happens to be a pretty good artist and not some kind of smear merchant.

One thing I categorically reject is the mentality that says "Oh sure, I get it, but the chattel, those idiots out there, they'll think this is real!" No they won't. I don't subscribe to a point of view that assumes a nation of idiots. Idiots exist in this nation, like in all nations. But they aren't as large a subset as many people, and I have to say in particular a kind of liberal, think there are.

What we do have in abundance in this country is ignorance. People have busy lives and a terrible media and some aren't as curious about these matters as they ought to be. But ignorance can be changed in a way idiocy can't. And if anything is going to come out of this, it will force the traditional media, which is sure to run with this for a day, to address the fact that these stories are based on lies. They might even provide the correct information to debunk it. What a concept. So this may be a catalyst to set the ignorant right about their ignorance.

Now, the story loosely attached to the cover, by Ryan Lizza, does not address the smears. It's a pretty interesting portrait of Obama's political career on the South Side of Chicago, through the State Senate and into the US Senate. I suppose some people will see it painting Obama as calculating or deliberate but I would characterize it as seeing him as "a politician." And most people running for President happen to be them. The day we get people who aren't politicians to run credible campaigns for President will be a good one, but so will the day we have jet packs. Still, this portrait of someone who successfully negotiated the choppy waters of Chicago politics makes for interesting reading, and offers some insight into Obama's talents and skills.