+ 1... I get the "notion" if you will, behind the joke against folks who may put 100% stock into some of the things said about Obama (though I still stand by my unsettled feelings about, again, his questionable associations). I get that. However, those who perceive that cover as racism, what are your thoughts about this cover perhaps being a case of ageism?

My thoughts are that the second cover is a lampoon of the first cover.

Ok. That's fair. Anyone else care to weigh in on this? Really, I am interested to know what the consensus on this is... (hehe, plus I think it was attn_ho who said this thread was lacking in conservative comments )

Err, the second cover isn't a "cover" at all. It's a cartoon of a pretend cover of the National Review. There is a pretty explicit explanation of it on the left of the cartoon.

Oh gosh, you are right. I think I was meaning to use the word "image" and just got on a roll with "cover"... My mistake. However, my question still stands. Also, just because there is an "explanation" doesn't mean there isn't an insinuation within the image itself.

Interesting New York Times article about the whole thing

Thanks for posting, however, I think THIS particular comment speaks volumes, and I think the whole "there's no bafoonery to Obama" is a weak excuse for not targeting him with comedic criticism:

Yes, we can laugh at him. But what has he done to give comedic fodder?

Well, let's see... When Obama had that slip up where he said he was going to campaign in all 57 states, or whatever (didn't memorize the speech, mind you), attempts at joking about him were squashed immediately and millions of excuses were made for him: "He's tired!", "He was thinking of soimething else!", "Yeah, well, look at Bush!"... I mean, it's like the dude it untouchable, which is rediculous and imbalanced. Also, I find that a lot of people back off from joking about him in ANY capacity because of the fear that ANYTHING they may say could in some way be turned into a "racial slur". He has been made completely off limits by his supporters and the media, and I think that is insane...

Hmm. Guess I just don't see many jokes coming from mistaking states and wherever else votes come from (Puerto Rico, Washington DC, etc). It's a pretty limited area. That would be worth about one night's worth of late night jokes, and maybe an SNL skit.

However, I'm also getting pretty tired of the "McCain is old" jokes. It's been done to death.

Cool. However, my point is that this never happened. Instead, we were subjected to a myriad of his supporters who came up with countless excuses for the slip up, therefore making this incident unavailable to comedians. I dunno, though, maybe someone around here has a YouTube clip of a left leaning, or neutral comedian poking fun at this incident.

Agreed. Listen, I have said countless times, I am NOT thrilled about McCain being the GOP's pick. In fact, there are TONS of things that can be focused on, and have been, in terms of making jokes about him. This is even highlighted in the article from the NYT that you posted. And, funny thing is, McCain takes the jokes about his age lightly and goes along with the humor.

Maybe I'm not seeing the humor because I'm tired of politics being reduced to late night comedy crap and non-issues that have nothing to do with anything of importance.

Hey, you know, I couldn't agree with you more. I mean, I think it's great that politics are a dialog that many different mediums and outlets are championing. However, I almost feel like it is an insult to flood the entertainment industry with political jargon/issues (with the exception of, of course, documentaries). It's as if they assume that the majority of americans will ONLY receive their political info from these outlets. Almost like people won't seek out info via news sites, candidates web sites, etc.

Colbert's been doing pretty well with his "Make McCain Exciting" bit. that's not aimed at how old he is, but rather how fucking boring and tedious he is.

granted, most people point that out, but usually attribute it to age.

I think the main issue here, for liberals, is that they don't want to see him boxed in, which so many people, both conservative and moderate, are in a rush to do. Unfortunately many people in America vote on a very superficial level, and we don't want to see that turned against Barack, because this election is just too damn important, and the consequences of him losing simply too disastrous. The neo-cons have proven time and time again that they will sink to whatever level is necessary to win, and we don't want to be the ones giving them the ammunition to do it. Simply put, we are not taking any chances; things are just too grim and too much is at stake, we're not going down on the account of some Swift Boat bullshit, not this time.