ShoutyBear: Politics. Foreign Affairs. Zarf.

That’s right — I call him Barry Hussein in my head. Because it’s funny. Know what else is funny? The cover of this week’s New Yorker. It’s very, very funny.

What isn’t funny is Barack Obama’s high-pitched squeal as he runs as fast as he can from the misconception that he’s a Muslim. First, he wouldn’t be photographed with a couple of head-scarved supporters. Now his campaign is dismissing as ”tasteless and offensive” a cartoon from a mostly liberal and Obama-friendly publication. He’s like the frat boy who resorts to fisticuffs after someone innocently mistakes him for gay. It begs the question: What are you so afraid of?

President Bush declares loudly and often that America is not at war with Islam, but the Islamic world doesn’t quite buy it. Bush appears to genuinely believe that the Islamic faith has been slandered by a bomb-wielding extremist few, but the problem is he also believes it’s America’s duty to liberate it by force. Meanwhile, he’s failed to control those in his party who are openly hostile to Muslims and seek political gain from Islamophobia. (I’m looking at you, Rep. Peter King.) No doubt Bush himself benefited from anti-Muslim sentiment during his re-election run in 2004.

Tension between America and the Middle East won’t disappear upon Bush’s exit, and while a recent Pew survey shows much of the world is swelling with hope for an Obama presidency, enthusiasm among the few Middle Eastern nations polled is much more slight. Skepticism about Washington’s intentions is bountiful, regardless of who succeeds President Bush.

But that could change. Suppose Muslim-Americans were out in force for Obama — attending rallies, campaigning door-to-door, hosting him at mosques, registering new voters in Muslim-rich communities. Now suppose that the Obama campaign allowed them to do this on camera. Might that turn opinion of him among foreign Muslims who have been generally skeptical about America? Maybe. Will we get to find out? Probably not, so long as Obama keeps shouting “I’m not a Muslim! I’m not a Muslim!” while Muslims think to themselves, “Well, what’s wrong with that?”

And that was the point of the New Yorker cartoon, to throw cold water on “the politics of fear” (also the cartoon’s title). The whispering campaign about the Obama family’s anti-Americanism is as silly as the media’s excitability about said campaign. Rather than debunk and move on, the MSM is squeezing this non-scandal scandal for every last salacious drop. Which makes the anti-New Yorker pile-on by TV talking heads from Chris Matthews to Bill O’Reilly not just disingenuous, but absurd. Think about it: the media pandering to a political candidate. That might be a first.