Former president Bill Clinton only yesterday indicated that he will be ready to campaign for Barack Obama whenever he needs him. Using his unquestionably effective role in Hillary's (subsequently abortive) campaign as a criterion for determining his probable impact on Obama's  interms of concrete and definable outcomes, there is every reason for a positive anticipation of an outcome beneficial to the Obama campaign particularly in the rural areas and among the so-called Reagan Democrats where Bill is said to have been especially effective. And, conversely, Clinton also has a lot to gain interms of his rehabilitation among a critical Democratic costituency including Blacks. He has an opportunity to salvage his almost diminished image among this group, paving the way for his wife's reintegration fully into the Democratic fold as well following their campaining style that left a large segment in the ranks of the party utterly disaffected and less disposed towads the Clintons. 

The New Yorker magazine cover caricature of Barack Obama  and his wife Michelle should be seen for what it is: Part of an ongoing, sustained, and concerted effort co-ordinated at highest level of the magazine, and in deference to the anti-Obama, pro-Clinton surrogacy long engaged in a synchronized drumbeat of smears surreptiously trumpeted through the intertnet, talk shows, magazines, newsmedia, etcetra, all designed to further racialize the Obama campaign and impugn his patriotism. The expectation here is predicated on a strategy that seeks to inflict maximum damage to Obama as to put in doubt the chances of his nomination, come Democratic Convention, following a primary that had all but rendered his nomination a foregone conclusion. Hence Hillary remains a viable alternative should Obama's survival of these smears and attacks prove unsustainable as insidiously intended by these surrogates whose bitterness over Hillary's loss of the primaries, and their unwillingness to endorse Obama has galvainzed their hostility toward him and solidified their will to go to any lengths and at whatever cost to the Democratic Party to secure Hillary's nomination. Call me a conspiracy theorist if you will, but the New Yorker magazine cover smear should be seen in the broader context of personal and power relationships attached the New Yorker and the Clintons, which have given rise to social and political imperatives dictating the reciprocity of their mutual  interests.

By referring to--- as "tasteless and offensive---" the New Yorker magazine cover that depicts Barack Obama and his wife Michelle in the most unflatterng terms, the Obama campaign could'nt have been more charitable to the once acclaimed and respected magazine that is now trying to boost its sluggish circulation by appealling to the most racist sentiments of the Republican Right. The New Yorker is stooping so low, and driven by its commercial considerations in highlighting a storyline that has the effect of advancing the Republican political narrative designed to portray the Obamas as unpatriot and sympathetic to terrorists. This insidious and incendiary, as well as inflamatory political caricature by the New Yorker artist Barry Blitt, masquerading as a constructive satire is nothing short pandering to the basest instincts of the Right and smacks of outright racism characterizing the political culture of the Republican Party and Conservative Movement.