July 21st cover of the new yorker

[Lena]

Originally Posted by xoxoxoBruce

But aren't we speculating on the reaction of the great unwashed masses, to this cover?

Maybe i can help here. I'm fairly sure that I fall under the catagory of "unwashed mass". I mean, i didn't even understand the cartoon when i first saw it. I figured it was some political slander meant to paint Obama as being pro the Iraq war or something similar. I don't watch (or read) news very often and have been obtaining practically all of my political information from the Cellar (on the rare occasion that i feel up to trying to glean some info from the mess that most of the political threads become after about a page or two).

Alot of people are similar to me in that they don't follow the news on a regular basis. I feel that these people would see this cartoon just so long as they have access to the internet. I don't read The New Yorker, and yet i've seen this cartoon in several places on the net. If i've seen it that often then many others have too.

The way i see it most people would come to one of three conclusions after seeing this political cartoon. The first would be to understand it to be satire (whether they approve or not doesn't matter). The scond would be like me and understand the message, who would then look for more info on it. It would be a gamble for them as to whether the source they find calls Obama a muslim or explains that it is satire. The last group are those who have already heard the rumor (and possibly believe it) and use this cartoon as proof/evidence that he is muslim.

This cartoon could be potentially damaging to Obama in that people who don't know much about the campaign could be led to believethat he is muslim. It doesn't matter whether or not they find out later that he's not because during the time they believe that, they'll be spreading the rumor even further.

Also, on that whole thing about whether the people who understand the cartoon are smarter or not, i think a better word to use is informed. those who understand this cartoon for what it is tend to be more informed on politics in general. That says nothing about someone's IQ, just about what they tend to read.

Sorry about the long post,
-Lena