Team Obama knows cover is satire
But they would rather side with stupid than media elite
You have to wonder: Did Team Obama really find that New Yorker cover to be "tasteless and offensive?" Or did they make that claim so they wouldn't appear to be aligned with the media elite?
When Barack Obama was first asked about the now-infamous cartoon depicting him wearing a turban while "giving dap" to his gun-toting, Angela Davis-fro'd wife, he reportedly shrugged and said, "I have no response to that."
So what is Twitter?
Twitter is a free social networking service that allows readers like you to receive updates (or "tweets") from Roeper all day long via our Web site. Check back all-day long as Roeper updates you on the latest news. You can also get updates sent right to your phone or IM whenever he has news to share -- for free.
Only later did an Obama spokesman say: "The New Yorker may think, as one of their staff explained to us, that their cover is a satirical lampoon of the caricature Senator Obama's right-wing critics have tried to create. But most readers will see it as tasteless and offensive. And we agree."
Wait a minute. They MAY THINK the cover is satire? No no no -- it IS satire.
We can debate about whether it's effective satire, but to say the publication merely thinks the cartoon is satire is to imply there was some other intention, like . . . what? Surely nobody in the Obama camp thinks the cartoonist or the editors of the New Yorker were deliberately trying to reinforce all those ridiculous stereotypes about the senator and his wife.
Anyone with a fifth-grade level of intellectual sophistication would understand, the cover is clearly aimed at lampooning those who perpetuate the rumors, innuendos and urban legends about the senator and his wife.
But if Team Obama says, "We thought the New Yorker cover was a wryly amusing thrust of the epee to the heart of those who perpetuate negative stereotypes about Sen. Obama and his wife" -- well, then they sound like they're in league with those elitist snobs at the New Yorker.
Better to sound outraged. You know, in case stupid people didn't get the joke.
As the New York Times pointed out in the wake of the cartoon controversy, comics are having a hard time figuring out what's so funny about Obama.
Bill Carter's piece points out that Leno, Conan, Letterman et al. have an easy peg about the Republican candidate: "John McCain is old."
You pin down that one dominant character trait -- or perception of a character trait -- and you beat it into the ground, and then you beat the ground itself.
George Bush: dumb. Bill Clinton: horny. Hillary Clinton: shrew. Al Gore: boring. Ronald Reagan: foggy. (That was the stereotype long before Reagan was diagnosed with Alzheimer's.) Gerald Ford: bumbling. Jimmy Carter: wimpy. Richard Nixon: liar.
Barack Obama: Well . . .
Jimmy Kimmel told the New York Times Obama's "ears should be the focus of the jokes."
I don't know. Bill Clinton could be 107, and the late-night comics will still be making fun of his womanizing, alleged or otherwise. I don't think you can get the same longevity about big-ears jokes.
Finishing 22nd in a poker tournament doesn't sound all that impressive -- but if you finish 22nd out of 6,844 players, and the tournament in question is the World Series of Poker Main Event, and this is literally the first live tournament you've ever played, that's fairly awesome.
Kudos to Tim Loecke of Highland Park, who qualified for the $10,000 buy-in tournament in Las Vegas by winning a $63 satellite tourney online. Loecke, 37, a sales exec with Staples, ended up 22nd at the WSOP Main Event and took home $257,334.
Well played, sir.
The Orlando Sentinel: "Five Olive Garden servers and a hostess are featured in a new online pictorial from Playboy.com called 'The Girls of Olive Garden.' "
Time out! I've got to verify this by checking out Playboy.com.
Confirmed. Katie, Amy, Brook, Shannon, Allysa, Sarah. In that order.
Often, when you see a story like this in the news, it's followed by a statement from a company spokesman condemning the photo shoot or even saying the women have been fired.
Here's what Olive Garden's spokeswoman told the Sentinel: "What people chose to do outside of work is an individual decision, and we all have the freedom to participate in any legal activity in our private lives."
What a ridiculous, judgmental, short-sighted reaction. Just once, it'd be nice if -- oh, wait a minute. Nobody's getting fired? No disciplinary action?
Talk about a shocking development. Talk about a refreshingly open-minded and cosmopolitan attitude. All hail the Olive Garden.
Comment at suntimes.com.