dear new yorker,
This is why I love you. This article is ridiculously long, but worth the time. It’s a deep-dive into one of the most under-reported and discussed times in Barack Obama’s life: Chicago politics. With a collection of quotes and research from a wide-spectrum of former advisors, mentors, and political colleagues, this is likely a side of Obama that I had never read.
And then there’s that other reason why I absolutely love you, New Yorker. While you may lean left, you don’t pull punches. You’ve written some gushers about Obama in the past. And I’ll bet a large part of your readership is still swooning over anything-Obama. But you invested heavily and ran something you saw as important, and reported on it fairly. Cheers to that.
I just hope that people will read this, even though it’s going to take them, like, forever.
love,
surya
::Update added 7:57 PDT, 7/14/08::
P.S. OK, so I had no idea that they chose such…interesting…cover art. I’m not sure what to make of it, but my first thought is really, really weird. Are they mocking the right and the litany of rumors out there? Or are they adding fuel to the fire of the absurd? Both campaigns have condemned it.
5/27/13 – This letter format is so tedious. This was a good article, though.
Hi Bhas:
Haven't read the article yet but am definitely going to. The Obama camp is starting to get a little hypersensitive. I understand that they are wary of the Hussein in his name and do not want to give any room for the right to exploit it, but it's a magazine cover for crying out loud. I don't think it's a good sign that both candidates(campaigns) decided to finally agree on something and that was to condemn a magazine cover!!! Wow, am I the only one that thinks this is absolutely ludicrous? It was a magazine cover.
I have yet to read the (long) article. I kinda think the Obama camp has a right to be angry with the cover, although people can pass it off as "satire" and "completely in the realm of journalism" – after all, there are so much more *tasteful* jokes that sensible people could be making. Not one of us would enjoy something like this being made, and spread, about us after all.