The September 10th issue of the National Review is out and when I passed it at a nearby bookstore, I pulled up short and did a double take:
As I mentioned earlier, I’m a big fan of illustrated covers. But when I saw this one from the conservative journal of record, I was immediately reminded of old Soviet Union style posters. A 10 second Google search pulled up this image:
And a quick search of my Twitter feed showed that I wasn’t the only one who was thinking the same thing.
Maybe my political cluelessness is showing and there was some intentional irony and sarcasm in the cover. Maybe the art director is a secret Obama supporter. Or maybe the National Review just stopped caring.
No idea. But I am putting this issue in my tickler file to see how it performs when it nets out. To be fair, their newsstand presence is pretty small.
To be just a little more fair, or to change the topic, exactly thirty two years ago, I missed the start of the fall semester of my junior year of college because I was in Chicago (Du Page County, actually) on an internship. I was running a phone bank for a branch of the Democratic National Committee that was working for the Carter/Mondale re-election team. When I walked into the downtown Chicago offices to get my orientation packet, I saw this poster everywhere:
And I thought of this:
Clearly I need to start a file on election year covers.
From the Foredeck of the Titanic 