Don't Judge A Magazine By Its Cover

As someone who recently ran an image of Vice President Dick Cheney's face in the cartoon body of Elmer Fudd to illustrate a story about coverage for wayward hunters, I sympathize with editors at “The New Yorker” who took such a verbal beating this week over the 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, get over it! This country is too sensitive and politically correct for its own good.

Yes, the cartoon image of presidential candidate Obama clad in what might be described as Middle Eastern garb, fist-bumping a wife drawn to look like a 1960s radical, in front of a fireplace with an American flag burning in it and a portrait of Osama bin Laden above it, is no doubt provocative.

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

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

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

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

We have big problems ahead of us. Huge problems. A war to end without leaving Iraq up the creek. A stalled economy to restart. A monster budget deficit to close. An energy policy to craft that weans us off dependence on dictatorial oil producers. A Social Security system to shore up. A health care system to reform so everyone has affordable access to decent care.

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

What do you folks think?