Blog House: Who got it? Few. Who liked it? Fewer still

In a campaign season full of cartoonish characters and cartoonish behavior, it's only fitting that an actual cartoon takes center stage.

The New Yorker, a magazine generally favorable to Democrats, shocked many with the cover of its July 21st issue. It depicts a President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama celebrating his election in the Oval Office. He is wearing typical Muslim garb, she has an Angela Davis 'fro, is wearing army fatigues and carrying an automatic weapon. A portrait of Osama bin Laden hangs over the fireplace, in which burns an American flag.

How could that offend anyone?

New Yorker editor David Remnick defended the cartoon. "The intent of the cover is to satirize the vicious and racist attacks and rumors and misconceptions about the Obamas that have been floating around in the blogosphere and are reflected in public opinion polls," he told ABC News.

That might have been the idea, but many thought the cover might have just the opposite effect. Jake Tapper at Political Punch (1) was one of them.

Intent factors into these matters, of course, but no Upper East Side liberal -- no matter how superior they feel their intellect is -- should assume that just because they're mocking such ridiculousness, the illustration won't feed into the same beast in emails and other media. It's a recruitment poster for the right-wing.

Not everyone was up in arms about the cover. Obama supporter Andrew Sullivan (2) told people to relax.

I thought it was quite funny myself. This was obviously intended ironically, and it's not exactly Parade magazine.

Philip Klein of the AmSpec blog (3) had a novel complaint. He said some people should be outraged by the cartoon -- but not the people you might think.

I don't understand why there isn't more outrage over the New Yorker Obama cover on the right. The cartoon is intended to make fun of conservatives as ignorant racists, and essentially marginalize any criticism of Obama as moronic. Remnick tells the Huffington Post that, "it combines a number of images that have been propagated, not by everyone on the right but by some, about Obama's supposed 'lack of patriotism' or his being 'soft on terrorism' or the idiotic notion that somehow Michelle Obama is the second coming of the Weathermen or most violent Black Panthers. That somehow all this is going to come to the Oval Office."

For all the controversy the cover sparked, Kevin Drum (4) thought that the cartoonist actually took the easy way out.

[A] few minutes thought convinced me it was gutless. If artist Barry Blitt had some real cojones, he would have drawn the same cover but shown it as a gigantic word bubble coming out of John McCain's mouth -- implying, you see, that this is how McCain wants the world to view Obama. But he didn't. Because that would have been unfair. And McCain would have complained about it. And for some reason, the risk that a failed satire would unfairly defame McCain is somehow seen as worse than the risk that a failed satire would unfairly defame Obama. So: gutless. And whatever else you can say about it, good satire is never gutless.

Former Gov. Jesse Ventura on "Larry King Live" Monday night made the startling announcement that his life was going to stay absolutely the same. No, he would not run for U.S. Senate, and, if you're looking to blame someone for him staying on the sidelines, blame the media jackals who won't leave him and his family alone. This is what he told a national television audience, dispelling rumors that he started in an interview with another media organization.

The irony was not lost on Joe Loveland of the Same Rowdy Crowd (5).

The entity he whines about most incessantly -- the news media -- may very well be the entity he controls more completely than any elected official I've ever seen in action. [Monday] night was a classic case in point. What other politician gets a spot on Larry King to announce that they're NOT running for a small state office, and saturation media coverage both before and after the announcement? What other politician gets fawned over though the entire process by people he continually complains are vicious "jackals?" But that's just the latest chapter of Jesse controlling the news media like a heel in the ring.

Matt Martin of MnPublius (6) was in awe of how Ventura played the media.

I think the only way to put this is that the media got suplexed, bodyslammed, and well, played by Jesse the Body Mind Body Ventura. Next time I want to promote some book I'm going to strut around in odd facial hair making aggressive statements about possibly running for Senate while sitting in my home in Mexico. ... You gotta give the guy some credit for this one...

Sara K. Smith at Wonkette (7) bemoaned what might have been.

We've been anxiously awaiting his declaration of candidacy for Senate against incumbent Republican Norm "Boxcar Willie" Coleman and Democrat Al Franken, who used to be a comedian once. But then Jesse Ventura went on the Larry King ... and said he wouldn't be running after all, boo. ... He also suggested that Coleman would probably win this in a walk, because polls showed him, Jesse Ventura, taking away loads of votes from Al Franken when he wasn't even running. Al Franken is hosed, Jesse Ventura has failed us as a candidate and an entertainer, the end.

tobrien@startribune.com

SEE FOR YOURSELF WHERE TO FIND THE BLOGS

1 Political Punch • blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch

2 Andrew Sullivan • andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com

3 AmSpec blog • spectator.org/blogger

4 Kevin Drum • mnpublius.com

5 The Same Rowdy Crowd • thesamerowdycrowd.com

6 MnPublius • mnpublius.com

7 Wonkette • wonkette.com

Editor's note: Blog excerpts are not edited for style or spelling.