Vanity Fair's McCain Cover Spoofs New Yorker

Not to be outdone, Vanity Fair has now brought out its own political satire magazine cover, not long after a media firestorm erupted over The New Yorker's cover of Barack and Michelle Obama.

Only this time, John and Cindy McCain are on the cover. The elder John, leaning on a walker, is giving the so-called (and ridiculously ridiculed) "terrorist fist jab" to Cindy, who is holding a bunch of prescription pill bottles. A copy of the Constitution is burning in the nearby fireplace, above which lies a very dopey-looking portrait of President Bush.

WowOwow.com has a comparison of the two covers side-by-side, the McCain one illustrated by VF's Tim Bower.

VF's Web site says:

"We here at Vanity Fair maintain a kind of affectionate rivalry with our downstairs neighbors at The New Yorker. We play softball every year, compete for some of the same stories, and share an elevator bank. ...And heaven knows we've published our share of scandalous images, on the cover and otherwise. So we've been watching the kerfuffle over last week's New Yorker cover with a mixture of empathy and better-you-than-us relief.

"We had our own presidential campaign cover in the works, which explored a different facet of the Politics of Fear, but we shelved it when The New Yorker's became the 'It Girl' of the blogosphere. Now, however, in a selfless act of solidarity with our downstairs neighbors here at the Condé Nast building, we'd like to share it with you. Confidentially, of course."