The Satirical Portrait Of Barack Obama

One imagines that Barack Obama probably choked on his Wheaties when he unwrapped his copy of the New Yorker this week. On the cover of the magazine, the democratic presidential hopeful is depicted giving his wife, Michelle, a fist bump in the Oval Office while dressed in traditional Muslim garb. As if it couldn’t get any worse for the couple, Mrs Obama is dressed as a terrorist and an American flag can be seen burning in the fireplace beneath a painting of Osama Bin Laden.

It’s a poignant, not to mention controversial, cover. Why? Well, it’s arrived at a time when the race to become the next US president had, as one writer recently put it, entered post-post 9/11 territory. Considering the events of that day in September 2001 have shaped the America’s foreign policy in the seven years that have followed, the subject of 9/11 has rarely surfaced during election year. It seems that Americans are content with burying, but not forgetting, the bad memories.

This will bring them flooding back, however, along with Obama’s unfortunate ‘ties’ to the attacks on New York and Washington – from his middle name – Hussein – and the unfortunate similarity his surname has with Osama to his former religious relationship with Pastor Jeremiah Wright.

But one thing we won’t see is John McCain jumping on the New Yorker’s bandwagon. The republicans have already criticised the magazine, while Obama’s camp has called it "tasteless and offensive".

The magazine's response?

It says the cover "combines a number of fantastical images about the Obamas and shows them for the obvious distortions they are."

It remains to be seen as to whether the rest of America sees it that way.