Obama: Magazin cover "tasteless, offensive"

Barack Obama says a New Yorker magazine cover depicting him in a turban and his wife toting a gun is "offensive." The issue features a cover story on the U.S. Democratic presidential hopeful by writer Ryan Lizza. Obama: Magazin cover "tasteless, offensive" The cover is a cartoon by New Yorker regular Barry Blitt in which Obama's wife Michelle sports an afro and a U.S. flag is burning in a fireplace as the couple tap fists in what some right-wing media outlets have characterized as a "terrorist fist bump." The New Yorker says it's satire, The Politico said Sunday. Obama campaign spokesman Bill Burton rejected that. "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," Burton said. "But most readers will see it as tasteless and offensive. And we agree." A spokesman for the campaign of likely GOP nominee John McCain said the campaign agreed "completely… with the Obama campaign, it's tasteless and offensive." In the cover story, Lizza writes that Obama, rather than being "some sort of anti-establishment revolutionary," has always been eager "to accommodate himself to existing institutions rather than tear them down or replace them."

Obama: Magazin cover "tasteless, offensive"

The cover is a cartoon by New Yorker regular Barry Blitt in which Obama's wife Michelle sports an afro and a U.S. flag is burning in a fireplace as the couple tap fists in what some right-wing media outlets have characterized as a "terrorist fist bump."

The New Yorker says it's satire, The Politico said Sunday. Obama campaign spokesman Bill Burton rejected that.

"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," Burton said.

"But most readers will see it as tasteless and offensive. And we agree."

A spokesman for the campaign of likely GOP nominee John McCain said the campaign agreed "completely… with the Obama campaign, it's tasteless and offensive."

In the cover story, Lizza writes that Obama, rather than being "some sort of anti-establishment revolutionary," has always been eager "to accommodate himself to existing institutions rather than tear them down or replace them."