Ground Game

You cannot tell a joke in political circles anymore. At least, you can't tell a funny joke. In fact, the new Washingtonian barometer for gauging whether or not you just made a funny is the corresponding shrieks of outrage from Beltway types. Consider the pained cries emerging from politically correct circles about the above image mocking the smears made against Barack Obama and his wife.

When political discourse is your meal ticket, it's reasonably safe for someone to assume your sense of humor wilts in a personality wasteland. But even with that said, people sure seem to be taking themselves, and the political humor of others, more seriously than ever.

Progressive types have been complaining after nearly every joke John McCain makes on the campaign trail, whether it's "Bomb, bomb Iran," or wryly suggesting that increased cigarette exports to Iran might be one way of thinning the extremist herd. My initial take on McCain's re-wording of the old Beach Boys hit was that it was actually teasing those pushing for military confrontation with Iran, not making light of warfare. How insensitive of me.

And then we saw Bernie Mac tossed under an increasingly crowded bus after he made "salty" remarks at an Obama fundraiser. Mac is a Chicago native. Obama is a Chicago politician, heading a campaign run by people seemingly familiar with the social vibes of Chicago celebrities like Bernie Mac. So, Bernie Mac comes out and does what he's spent a career doing, and is chastised for it by the people who asked for his services. If there's any doubt Obama is trying to have it both ways, consider his campaign put out a statement disowning Mac, while Obama called Mac, "my great friend, one of the kings of comedy"

And if all that weren't enough, the outrage level is in the stratosphere today over the new cover of The New Yorker. The only valid criticism I've seen is that it would have worked better as an insert, rather than the cover image. But it was almost worth it to hear the absolutely ridiculous complaints from liberal political observers. After all, this was an illustration mocking anti-Obama conservatives for spreading rumors about Obama coming from one of the more liberal publications out there. Have any of you ever browsed through the Talk of the Town section?

The Washington Monthly's Kevin Drum says the joke would be funny if it was a joke about McCain:

"If artist Barry Blitt had some real cojones, he would have drawn the same cover but shown it as a gigantic word bubble coming out of John McCain's mouth -- implying, you see, that this is how McCain wants the world to view Obama."

But of course, the inverse is true. Blitt showed more nerve by not talking down to the audience and over-explaining his obvious satire. And as some bloggers have pointed out, there was no correlating anger over similar illustrations, like this one showing John McCain being tortured by his political enemies.

Gawker.com, no bastion of conservative thought, puts it best in a, God forbid, humorous take:

This obvious and heavy-handed satire has enraged Democrats and liberal media critics because now they are pretty sure this nation of child-like imbeciles will believe it to be an un-retouched photograph from the FUTURE.

James Joyner has a solid roundup of the OUTRAGE here.