As someone who recently ran an image of Vice President DickCheney's face in the cartoon body of Elmer Fudd to illustrate astory about coverage for wayward hunters, I sympathize with editorsat “The New Yorker” who took such a verbal beating this week overthe publication's controversial cover satirizing all the fearsome,ignorant misconceptions about Sen. Barack Obama. For those“offended” by the image, or who find it “tasteless,” I say, getover it! This country is too sensitive and politically correct forits own good.

Yes, the cartoon image of presidential candidate Obama clad in whatmight be described as Middle Eastern garb, fist-bumping a wifedrawn to look like a 1960s radical, in front of a fireplace with anAmerican flag burning in it and a portrait of Osama bin Laden aboveit, is no doubt provocative.

That's the whole point–to provoke discussion and debate,hopefully heated and impassioned, about how some people in this toooften clueless society see the Democratic candidate.

A good newsmagazine cover will not only make people stop on thestreet and do a double-take when they pass the newsstand (that'sgood marketing), but it will also make people stop and think aboutthe subject matter involved, then hopefully draw them into readingmore about it and perhaps even help them evolve in their thinking.(For those who do not believe in evolution, I am sorry if I”veoffended you.)

I think a big problem in this country is that people get soworked up about the smallest, most trivial and superficial campaignissues–such as who is wearing a flag pin on their lapel thatday–rather than what a candidate will do in office to improve thecountry's well-being.

We are getting so caught up in empty symbolism and pettyarguments that we can no longer appreciate what really matters.

We have big problems ahead of us. Huge problems. A war to endwithout leaving Iraq up the creek. A stalled economy to restart. Amonster budget deficit to close. An energy policy to craft thatweans us off dependence on dictatorial oil producers. A SocialSecurity system to shore up. A health care system to reform soeveryone has affordable access to decent care.

The message I drew from “The New Yorker” cartoon is that weshould focus on the really important issues and not all thenonsense about Sen. Obama's relatively exotic background for a U.S.presidential candidate.

What do you folks think?