IMHO In My Humble Opinion

I went out to dinner this evening at my favorite restaurant, and ran into a couple of friends of mine who were also eating there. I was blindsided by the fact that this week's New Yorker cover depicts Barack Obama as a terrorist, fist-bumping his wife Michelle with what some Right-Wing commentators called a terrorist signal.

Now, clearly, this is actually not something that the New Yorker people considered as possibly perpetuating the ideas that Barack Obama is a Muslim (because he's not) and that Michelle Obama is a terrorist (because she's not) or that they support flag-burning or Osama bin Laden (because, as far as I have heard, they don't). The editor, Hendrik Hertzberg, said as much in an interview.

The fact that people believe that something that is so obviously satire might be taken seriously is something that concerns me. Especially because this is something that, if it arrived in my mailbox, would be something I'd react to by thinking, "Oh, that New Yorker. There they go overreacting again." Which I would have if I had come home this evening without the advance warning of what was waiting for me (after all, I am one of their extra-liberal subscribers...)

Are there really people who will take this cover as confirmation that the Obamas are out to undermine the United States? Are these people that anybody considers rational? I have serious doubts about that. And if you actually have a conversation with someone like that, I implore you, please talk some sense into them. Because honestly, Barack Obama is not a Muslim, and Michelle Obama is not a terrorist, and neither one of them support Osama bin Laden. All of these are factual matters of the public record, and anybody who believes otherwise needs to take a look at the truth.

I understand that there are people who believe that the truth needs to take the back seat to ideological beliefs or faith or whatever, but there are some things that are observable fact. The sooner our public discourse gets to the point that we can point out people's lies about things like this the better.

I believe that there may be reasons not to support Barack Obama. Fewer than the reasons to support McCain, but that's beside the point. Too many people are using reasons not to support Obama that are simply not based on fact, and that is the point this magazine cover is intended to make. None of what it depicts is objectively true (and that is something that is so obviously part of the public record that even though I'd like to point to proof, I don't even know where to begin.)