I subscribe to the New Yorker, but didn't receive this issue in the mail. I was wondering why I missed a week. Coincidence? Who knows...

I am not offended at all, and I'm pretty sure that anyone who actually reads this particular periodical understands the satirical spirit in which the image was presented.

Of course, it might have been more appropriate as an illustration on an inside page, clearly connected to an explanatory article. As has been pointed out above, many people of varying points of view and levels of sophistication see the covers of magazines on newsstands, including covers of magazines that they never read.

Some such folks would probably have gotten the wrong idea; but I seriously doubt that anyone who might otherwise have voted Democratic in the upcoming general election would have changed their mind because a magazine cover ~ of a notoriously left/liberal/artsy magazine featuring a lot of big words ~ made them believe all those heavy-handed right wing lies about Mr. Obama.