So either all is fair in love and politics or be careful what you wish for…
because you just might get it. You choose!
Yesterday, Vanity Fair unveiled their own interpretation of “The Politics of Fear”, John McCain style, on their website. Now of course, this is on their website and not the cover of an upcoming issue but nevertheless, the picture was created and is being broadcast for anyone with Internet access to see (i.e. more people than those who subscribe to the New Yorker).
In the picture, we find Cindy McCain holding a vial of pills while terrorist fist jabbing her husband, the presumptive Republican Party Presidential Nominee John McCain, in the Oval Office. John is trying to keep his balance with a walker in order to jab his wife. All the while, a likeness of George W. Bush hangs in the balance, watching, and the coveted Constitution burns in the fireplace.
What I find interesting about this depiction and the similar one previously rendered with different characters is how realistic this one is and how unrealistic the other was. And I guess I wonder: does that mean the other one was actually funny and this one may be more of an attack? Again, I am not trying to defend John McCain and his wife, or for that matter Barack and Michelle Obama, because they have been thrust into this mainstream (I like lamestream) media monster. But just bear with me:
Barack and Michelle Obama’s New Yorker cover was quite far from truthful. Michelle appears as this kind of blaxploitation Cleopatra Jones (even though these kinds of movies were commonplace in the early to late 70’s–see the site’s Introduction–when she was anywhere between 5 and 15 years old) while Barack Obama is portrayed as a newly-converted Muslim in traditional garb. Add a little Osama bin Laden and spice that up with a burning American flag and you have a recipe for widespread offense. Now, in the name of satire, I guess there’s room to paint them in that light…? But look at this cover. Now granted, I did not have a problem with the other cover and don’t really have a problem with this one, especially considering yesterday’s and today’s perhaps truthful accusation from the McCain campaign about the media’s bias toward Obama. But since McCain says the coverage is “fun“, I guess that shuts my mouth…? (Also, there’s a reason why the media is biased toward Obama which is to be explained later.) But look at the covers and how different the unreal depictions of the Obamas are in comparison to the more real depictions of the McCains.
Cindy McCain is holding vials of pills, the very things she was addicted to for many years, unknown to many people including her husband, until she was properly outed. John is using a walker which alludes to his feared ailing body and the fear surrounding the likelihood of him becoming the oldest President ever elected in this country at 72 years old. Furthermore, considering the allusions to John McCain being the encore to any and everything Bushian and the general consensus that a McCain presidency is necessary to “cover” the misdeeds perpetrated during the past 8 years, the hanging portrait and the likeness found in it stand in stark contrast to the supposed “relationship” between Obama and Osama, especially taking into account that a “dying” man Obama has never met, cannot be found on the side of some mountains but we can seek out possible life on Mars? Likewise, considering that many people find many of the political moves enacted under President Bush unconstitutional and the fact that someone has voted “yea” with those moves 95% of the time, a burning Constitution seems more appropriate. After all, you can always make more flags, but we only have one Constitution.
That being said, maybe it is that this one is actually not satirical at all but an insight into a couple that we don’t know about but will soon will or better yet, a couple that we think we know about but actually don’t…? Even Vanity Fair said, though tongue-and-cheek:
We had our own presidential campaign cover in the works, which explored a different facet of the Politics of Fear, but we shelved it when The New Yorker’s became the ‘It Girl’ of the blogosphere. Now, however, in a selfless act of solidarity with our downstairs neighbors here at the Condé Nast building, we’d like to share it with you. Confidentially, of course.
I wonder if politicians and pundits alike will come out and tell people to boycott Vanity Fair as fervently as they told them to boycott the New Yorker…
And so if, in fact, all is fair in love and politics while one must also be careful what he wishes for because he just might get it, and all things considered, we hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal, maybe the perspective Vanity Fair has taken should not be called “The Politics of Fear” but rather “The Politics of Truth”. And maybe that, instead of the New Yorker cover, is something to be afraid of…
Also, regarding the media bias, whenever people of color, especially black people in America, ascend to heights untold in an area that is predominantly “white”, the media has always had some sense of favoritism/awe or leaning toward them. Why? Because it is a spectacle, for some reason, when people realize that black people are in some ways better than white people at things that are considered wholly “white”. WOW! SHOCKING! Some people are saying the bias is because Obama’s campaign is so “unprecedented” but that’s only part of the reason. And if you don’t believe me ask someone like Rocco Mediate or his fellow golfers who can be ahead of Tiger Woods approaching the final round on Sunday and still be seen as “trailing” him because he’s always in contention or the women who play tennis against Venus and Serena Williams, who in spite of the sisters’ lack of playing, are still seen as the best or the colleagues of Dr. Ben Carson, who performed the first successful operation to separate Siamese twins or the contemporaries of Leontyne Price, one of, if not the, most decorated classical singers ever or TV producers who write on the same topics as Shonda Rhimes, creator and executive producer for Grey’s Anatomy. (I won’t talk about Oprah because she’s always brought up. I mean, she’s not the CEO of a multi-million dollar industry but more like multi-billion dollar.) Anyway, whether their mystique is current or not, you see the pattern. And who’s to blame for Obama’s bias? John McCain. He should have known better than to run for President when people were looking for changes they could believe in…
OJO! I have no political affiliation.
UPDATE: So with all this talk about a media bias toward Obama, I don’t know any media outlets, let alone networks, that have EDITED Obama’s words in order to make him appear less inane. If you know of any, let me know and I’ll post it…
Leave a Reply