Myself being a liberal with a sense of humor, I see the point in this article but will have to refute its basic claims.
The difference between making fun of McCain's age, or his trigger-happiness, or even Secretary Rice's race; and Obama's religion-is that McCain is indeed old, and he has made statements like his infamous "bomb bomb bomb Iran", and Secretary Rice is indeed black, but in no way is Barack Obama a Muslim. However tasteless the McCain cartoon may be, it causes no harm to spread a rumor that McCain is old, if you hadn't noticed, he is in fact old. If you see the McCain cartoon, you'll just laugh and remember the good old days when President Reagan told stories about his dinners with Thomas Jefferson. It's a lot easier to make fun of a person's age, or a tough stance on hostile nations, or even burning the Constitution, and laugh at it. After years of Bush burning the Constitution, we've kind of gotten a little used to it. It also must be noted that the cartoon was a spoof of the original Obama cartoon.
However, continuing to insinuate that Obama is a Muslim, when a good portion of the electorate still believes that he is, is simply an outright untruth. To say that Obama is in league with Osama, that Michelle is a violent black supremacist bent on a killing spree, to say that Obama is a flag burner, those are not stretches of the truth. You couldn't even come up with the cartoon if you took the truth and stretched it to Pluto. They are outright lies.
Of course I understand that the cartoon (from the New Yorker) was satirizing the pitiful attempts of the right to label Obama as a Muslim and a terrorist supporter, but I know that he is indeed not a Muslim and has lived the American Dream as much as any of us. The 12% of Americans who think Obama is a Muslim may not.
And after being attacked for being part of a CHRISTIAN church with a hate-spewing pastor? It must have been hard to be a Muslim in the United Church of Christ. Must be why he left.
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i personally dislike the cartoon, because it misleads many people who don't understand that it is really poking fun at conservatives. people believe what they want to believe and, like you said, people who are still sadly misinformed can be getting the completely wrong idea.
plus, the obamas still have young girls. i don't know about you, but seeing a picture of my parents portrayed as terrorists at an age where i don't immediately recognize that it is a joke can be a little jarring.
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