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Long Islanders appalled by New Yorker's Obama cartoon

BY MARC BEJA | marc.beja@newsday.com

July 15, 2008

The cover of the July 21 issue of the New Yorker, by artist Barry Blitt, shows Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama dressed as a Muslim and his wife as a terrorist. The magazine says the cover is meant to satirize the use of scare tactics and misinformation in the presidential election. (AP/New Yorker))

When Eileen Hafner looked at the political cartoon on the cover of this week's The New Yorker magazine, her jaw dropped.

In the drawing, Barack Obama, clad in Muslim clothing, stands with his wife, who has a machine gun slung across her back. An American flag burns in the fireplace.

"I'm really offended by it," Hafner, 55, of Bay Shore, said. "I plan on voting for [John] McCain, but even still, I can't believe they would go there," she said of the magazine.

While The New Yorker said the cartoon was meant to be a satirical statement on right-wing criticisms of the Democratic presidential candidate, many interviewed yesterday were more appalled than amused.

"There is nothing funny about it," said Valerie Melhado, 47, of West Babylon. "And the Osama bin Laden painting on the wall in the corner - that just gave me chills."

While Democrats and Republicans alike condemned the magazine's cover, some believed the political commentary behind it excused its abrasiveness.

Samuel DiMaggio of Bohemia chuckled when he saw the picture. "I think it's pretty comical," DiMaggio, 84, said. "I don't know much about his background, but he's not going to win anyway. This won't change that." While DiMaggio agreed with the magazine's belief that it was showing "obvious distortions," others thought the drawing had been based on facts.

"I think the picture depicted them the way they really are," said Denise Demichele of Bay Shore, who plans to vote for McCain, the Republican candidate, for president. "They're way too militant."

But when Marc Zipkin looked down at the drawing of the Obamas, he shook his head and sighed. "If they did something of equal tastelessness about Bush or Cheney, I could say that I liked it," Zipkin, of Bay Shore, said. "A lot of people are just gonna see the turban and think poorly of Obama and his wife.

"Quite honestly," Zipkin added, "I find it offensive to my intelligence."