The New Yorker Cover

A lot has been written by now about the infamous New Yorker cover and I do not plan to repeat it. But the irony is that the cover was meant as satire of supposed right wing slurs on Obama has turned into a cause celeb among the left. The New Yorker is not National Review, it is a fairly liberal magazine which has a world view that sees little outside the confines of Manhattan (and allied enclaves) except ignorant farmers and barbarians. To claim that the New Yorker was out to slime Obama is laughable.

Satire is an important tool in any free society -- we must be able to lampoon our leaders, in a way reminding them that they are no better than us. In this way, satire fills the role that the in Roman days was filled by the servant whispering into the ear of a general receiving a triumph "Remember, you are mortal."

Is Obama to be immune from satire? Is satirizing Obama somehow racist, and if it is, is that thought in and of itself racist?

Does anyone on the left has a sense of humor?

And finally, while I expect to see more of it closer to November coming from the right side, most of the anti-Obama nastiness came from his own party, in the context of a very long and bloody primary fight.