Obama slur

In a column by Leonard Pitts in the McClatchy newspapers, this on the recent New Yorker cover of the Obamas:
"Me, I like the cover. It strikes me as an incisive comment on the fear-mongering that has attended Obama's run for the presidency. Still, I understand why it is incendiary: Some of us will take it seriously. To be effective, satire needs a situation it can inflate into ridiculousness. But the hysteria surrounding Obama has nowhere to go; it is already ridiculous. In just the last few days, we've had Jesse Jackson threatening to castrate him and John McLaughlin calling him an Oreo. Add to that the whispers about Obama's supposed Muslim heritage (not that there's anything wrong with that), the "terrorist" implications of bumping fists, and Michelle Obama's purported use of the term "whitey" (a word no black person has uttered since "The Jeffersons" went off the air in 1985), and it's clear that "ridiculous" has become our default status. What once were punch lines now are headlines... Somewhere between the stained blue dress and the vice president shooting a guy in the face, between swift boat lies and 'war on terra' alibis, the absurd became the ordinary, facts became optional, and satire became superfluous. We are beyond satire, my friends. These days, there's nothing more ridiculous than the truth."

Rico says he wishes he'd written it...