The New Yorker Cover

I have two basic thoughts on the New Yorker cover of Obama. 1) It's pretty funny; 2) It's pretty sad. It's sad because every campaign season could be subtitled "Attack of the Morons." Everything and anything is fodder for morons to seize on. Candidates riding in tanks, candidates wind surfing, candidates who are portrayed as national enemies, in this case.

It's funny at one level, because it does present in all its stark ridiculousness this year's crazy right wing smear of our candidate. It would be a lot funnier, say, the week after the election and Obama has won. Then it would've been hilarious. Because there's no way -- except for the stupidest morons -- that the right wing can seriously believe all these things about Obama. And it would be a way of throwing it in their face ... after the election. And for the stupidest morons ... well, there's no getting through to them anyway.

But lemons have already been served us. So now it's time to make lemonade. The hope has to be that in whatever conversation there is of this picture that it will serve to point out the stupidity of the smears. Calling it "tasteless," the official line, might be a way to move past it. Let it have its day or two in the news. But if it lingers, use it to make people see how stupid their fears are. Yeah, this is the true Obama ... as if! How ridiculous.

There will be those who will try to reinforce the smears by way of this illustration. But of course they're: 1) for the most part not sincere; 2) a lost cause anyway. Whatever harm there is to be done by emails has already been done. Morons are plentiful, but there's not an endless supply. President Bush seems to have found the bottom, around 28% of the population.