Obama: Don't mess with the messiah!
Posted: Wednesday, July 16, 2008 9:17 AM by Mark Murray
On that New Yorker cover, Obama told CNN's Larry King: "You know, there are wonderful Muslim Americans all across the country who are doing wonderful things. And for this to be used as sort of an insult, or to raise suspicions about me, I think is unfortunate. And it's not what America's all about."
VIDEO: A Hardball panel debates whether the controversial New Yorker cover showing Barack Obama in Muslim garb is satire or slur.
Maureen Dowd uses the New Yorker cover as a springboard to ask: Why can’t we laugh at Obama? “At first blush, it would seem to be a positive for Obama that he is hard to mock. But on second thought, is it another sign that he’s trying so hard to be perfect that it’s stultifying? Or that eight years of W. and Cheney have robbed Democratic voters of their sense of humor?”
“Certainly, as the potential first black president, and as a contender with tender experience, Obama must feel under strain to be serious. But he does not want the ‘take’ on him to become that he’s so tightly wrapped, overcalculated and circumspect that he can’t even allow anyone to make jokes about him, and that his supporters are so evangelical and eager for a champion to rescue America that their response to any razzing is a sanctimonious: Don’t mess with our messiah!”
