So then this happened. Vanity Fair, a late yet uninvited guest to the New Yorker cover fiasco, went and drew up this parody of a misunderstood parody. As you can see, it's like taking the square root of comic failure. Not only is McCain not depicted as a caricature of feverish political imagination (he doesn't look half bad here, really), but there's hardly an exaggerated element in the pic, save perhaps the burning Constitution in the fireplace. (It's under secure glass at the National Archives, silly!) Cindy enjoys her pills, the Macs at least like the incumbent well enough to hang a portrait of him, and the walker is only a matter of time. Plus, it sounds as if VF got Wolcott to write this tepid nyuck-nyuck introduction:

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.

It's like the football frat decided to post the collective GPA of the computer frat all over campus. OK, I more or less stole that image from Marc Ambinder, who points out that VF 'toonist Tom Bower stole his from the Daily News's Bill Bramhall.

[Vanity Fair]