The controversial cover of this week's New Yorker was meant to poke fun at the "politics of fear" surrounding Illinois Sen. Barack Obama's candidacy, says top editor David Remnick.

 

"The intention is to satirize not Barack Obama and Michelle Obama, but, in fact, to hold a pretty harsh light up to the rumors, innuendos, lies about the Obamas that have come up — that they are somehow insufficiently patriotic or soft on terrorism," he says.

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