A month ago, Clint Eastwood’s Obama empty-chair shtick was universally agreed by liberals to have been a disaster for Romney.

Now, it’s on the cover of The New Yorker.

The artist, Barry Blitt, says it wasn’t the easiest of assignments:

“This image seemed like a proper response to the first Presidential debate,” Blitt told the New Yorker’s Culture Desk. “But I’m not sure I realized how hard it is to caricature furniture.”



That’s what hiring John Kerry as debate coach gets you. When they put the Empty Chair on Mount Rushmore, I hope they append that quote underneath.

But don’t worry. Obama, recognizing that he came across as cold, bloodless, detached, insulated, isolated and disconnected, knows how to fix the problem:

Like he does almost every time something goes wrong, Obama eschewed the mea culpas — he’s not big on apologies in front of his staff — and shut down to think things over with the adviser whose company he values most in times of trouble: himself.

I like this line:

Nobody had to tell President Barack Obama he had whiffed when he walked off the stage in Denver Wednesday night — nor was he in the mood for a lot of advice. “You could tell he was pissed,” said a person close to the president.

Yeah. So could 68 million people who aren’t close to the president.