The Swamp: Obama campaign slams New Yorker cover

You know the cover to the New Yorker magazine only confirms it. I'm not totally sure where the whole terrorist fist jab came from, indeed, it might have come from those on the right wing who probably just assigned a title to it and it just stuck. Still let's be honest here.

Why does a fist bump (the one you might have seen Barack and Michelle do to each other at a rally in the past month or so) gotta be called a terrorist fist jab? What's so threating about this hand gesture usually called a "dap"?

Here's more on that story from The Swamp:

The cover of the new New Yorker magazine depicts a caricature of Sen. Barack Obama as Muslim, standing in the Oval Office with a flag burning in the fireplace and a painting of Osama bin Laden hanging on the wall. He gives a fist bump to his wife, Michelle Obama, who is pictured wearing military fatigues and an automatic rifle slung over her shoulder.

The New Yorker said the cover by Barry Blitt called "The Politics of Fear" is meant to satirize "the use of scare tactics and misinformation in the Presidential election to derail Barack Obama's campaign," according to a press release about the new magazine issue.

The Obama campaign, as well as the campaign of Republican rival John McCain, slammed the cover as offensive:

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

"We completely agree with the Obama campaign, it's tasteless and offensive," McCain spokesman Tucker Bounds said in a statement.

Obama has fought rumors that he is Muslim and that his wife once said a slur on videotape directed toward white people. Conservatives also challenged the patriotism of Michelle Obama. The campaign started a website, fightthesmears.com, aimed at combating those and other rumors.

This summer, FOX News anchor E.D. Hill said the widely-televised fist bump shared by Obama and his wife had been characterized as a "terrorist fist jab." (She apologized and lost her show, though FOX said the network had already planned to replace her show in the lineup.)

A journalist asked Obama about the New Yorker cover during a press availability Sunday in San Diego, according to news reports.

To be honest, I'm not sure who to vote for. At this moment I'm not jumping on the Obama bandwagon to November. For now I'll just see how the campaign goes on all fronts. The way I see it there are four Presidential candidates I can vote for. Strike that there are only three I would vote for.

I know where the rumor that Obama was a Muslim comes from. He has a funny name and he's part African and he went to school in Indonesia. For some dumb people who want to believe that, it's reason enough. To be sure, there does seem to be a culture of fear.