Newsweek's Newest Cover

Jonathan Alter chronicles the ever lengthening list of myths, lies and distortions that have been spread thus far about President Obama:

Our maddening times demand that the truth be forthrightly stated at the outset, and not just that the president has nothing in common with the führer beyond the possession of a dog. The outlandish stories about Barack Hussein Obama are simply false: he wasn’t born outside the United States (the tabloid “proof” has been debunked as a crude forgery); he has never been a Muslim (he was raised by an atheist and became a practicing Christian in his 20s); his policies are not “socialist” (he explicitly rejected advice to nationalize the banks and wants the government out of General Motors and Chrysler as quickly as possible); he is not a “warmonger” (he promised in 2008 to withdraw from Iraq and escalate in Afghanistan and has done so); he is neither a coddler of terrorists (he has already ordered the killing of more “high value” Qaeda targets in 18 months than his predecessor did in eight years), nor a coddler of Wall Street (his financial-reform package, while watered down, was the most vigorous since the New Deal), nor an enemy of American business (he and the Chamber of Commerce favor tax credits for small business that were stymied by the GOP to deprive him of a victory). And that’s just the short list of lies.

Most of these should come as no surprise to anyone who's been paying attention to national politics for the past few years but it's always telling to see how long the list has gotten. Newsweek's critics are claiming that the cover is merely a publicity stunt to sell more issues and perhaps they're correct on that count but that certainly makes the sentiments expressed in the article no less true or relevant. David Cross, perhaps my favorite comedian, touched on this topic in his newest special Bigger and Blackerer as well as addressing the right's jingoistic hypocrisy when it comes to criticizing America:


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