By any standards the the New Yorker's front cover depiction of Democratic nominee Barack Obama as a Muslim in full-flowing robes fist-bumping with his wife Michelle who is shown as a Afro-wearing, gun-toting terrorist, has attracted attention.

The cartoon shows the pair celebrating an apparent takeover of the White House with an  American flag burning in the background and a picture of Osama Bin Laden hanging on the wall. Titled "The Politics of Fear", the picture by Barry Blitt is New Yorker satire at its biting, brilliant best.

Yet notwithstanding its ability to sell magazines, (I can't wait to get my copy) it is quite obvious that the cartoon's original point -- to lampoon the off-the-wall conspiracy theories about Obama -- seems to have missed its mark by a long way amongst many people, liberal and conservative alike.

The Obama camp released a statement labelling the cartoon "tasteless and offensive" and derided the magazine's defence that it was intended as a satirical message.

"The New Yorker may think, as one of their staff explained to us, that their cover is a satirical lampoon of the caricature Senator Obama's right-wing critics have tried to create. But most readers will see it as tasteless and offensive. And we agree," said the statement. [source]