All of America is talking about that New Yorker cover — Islamic terrorist Obama and his wife in the Oval Office, burning the American flag. Both Obama and McCain have decried the cover, but what effect will it have on the election?

Obama’s Terrorist New Yorker cover — Barack Obama’s campaign has decried it, and so has John McCain’s. Politico described it as “candy for cable news“. But will people actually read the article on the ‘theatre of fear’ being employed by opponents of Barack Obama or will they merely become embroiled at discussion of the cover illustration?

The Huffington Post explains and analyses:

Yikes! Controversial New Yorker Cover Shows Muslim, Flag-Burning, Osama-Loving, Fist-Bumping Obama. Who knows if they’ll get this in Dubuque, but they sure aren’t going to like it in Chicago: This week’s New Yorker cover features an image of Michelle and Barack Obama that combines every smeary right-wing stereotype imaginable: An image of Obama in a turban and robes fist-bumping his be-afro’d wife, dressed in the military fatigues of a revolutionary and packing a machine gun and some serious ammo. Oh yes, this quaint little scene takes place in the Oval Office, under a picture of Osama bin Laden above a roaring fireplace, in which burns an American flag. All that’s missing is a token sprig of arugula.

Perhaps even more interesting is this analysis piece, Reading The Pictures: The “What” Of What’s Wrong With Barack Osama TNY Cover:

“The contribution Errol Morris made to visual politics earlier this summer, in explaining his Abu Ghraib film, was to emphasize how much the elements of a highly controversial image tend to get missed or “looked past” in the strong emotional and ideological reactions to the overall image.

With this illustration having the capacity to roil the nets for days, you’ve already seen analysis as to why it’s so bad. What you’re probably not going to see much of elsewhere, on the other hand, is the actual “what” of what’s wrong here.”

Obama on Iraq. Barack Obama laid out a strong and plausible case for his position on withdrawal from Iraq in the New York Times today–with one exception. He’s still clinging to his 16 month timetable for getting the troops home. — Swampland

The New Republic’s take on it was “Flipping Out”. So Obama will listen to his generals and consider the facts on the ground before fully withdrawing from Iraq. OMG! WTF?

Time‘s Mark Halperin told Anderson Cooper, “This is one of the biggest things that’s happened so far in the general election.” Yes, it’s stop-the-presses enormous: Barack Obama has affirmed a position that he has held for months. — The New Republic

Bush Moves to Lift Ban on Offshore Drilling. Dissing the decisions of his Dad, President Bush has lifted an executive order barring offshore oil and gas drilling that protects nearly 90% of the U.S. coastline. The announcement alone does not open U.S. coasts to energy exploration — the ban, also written into law, must be lifted by Congress, where numerous efforts to do so have failed. But it marks the first time in the 26-year history of the ban that a president has taken the lead in trying to lift it – particularly interesting given this is the one who opposed lifting the ban when he ran for office in 2000. — CQ Politics

Talking to minorities – We highlighted yesterday that both presidential candidates would be addressing civil rights group the NAACP this week. Real Clear Politics has a link to a transcript of Obama’s speech to the NAACP in which he quotes Martin Luther King’s famous phrase “the inseparable twin of racial justice is economic justice.”

“What we’ve learned in such a dramatic way in recent months is that pain in our economy trickles up; that Wall Street can’t thrive so long as Main Street is struggling; and that America is better off when the well-being of American business and the American people are aligned.”

Both candidates also spoke to leading Hispanic group La Raza this week. McCain’s speech to La Raza underscored economic issues and Obama’s speech to La Raza spoke about reforming education and the workforce.