There's A Joke Here Somewhere?

So there's this New Yorker Magazine cover this week, with caricatures of the Obamas.

We're supposed to understand that it's a satirical take on how right-wingers have characterized the Senator and his wife. If the illustration had included a character who was supposed to represent said right-wingers (say, if the illustration showed the Obamas posing for a cartoonist, who was drawing that caricature instead of how they actually looked), then it might have been a little clearer.

Why does the New Yorker cover ultimately fail as satire? Because today, it's hard to distinguish between satire and actual right-wing talking points. There's an audience which won't recognize the illustration as satire - the same audience that is targeted by Fox "News" stories like this -