RALEIGH - The radioactive cover of the latest The New Yorker magazine is funny. No ifs, buts or sourpusses. Featuring Barack Obama in Islamic finery and fist-bumping First Lady-In-Waiting Michelle as an armed militant, it's an instant classic of political satire.

But how will it play with the public? Does it help or hurt Obama?

Already, the chattering class is working overtime, with many on the Obama side fulminating that The New Yorker has gone too far. The campaign calls the cover "tasteless and offensive." We can see the case for one insult or the other, but saying it is both is just, well, tasteless and offensive.

Seriously, the worst response to this brilliant piece of lampooning would be to try to shout it down and scold the creators. Not only does that reaction recall the censoring tendencies of less tolerant cultures, it reinforces the image of Obama as coddled, of the candidate and many supporters as elitists, and of hard-core Democrats as humorless.

The argument against the cover from Obama supporters goes like this: The most educated 10 percent of Americans will understand the cover as a critique of Swift Boat-style fear-mongering. But for the remainder, the image may be enough to swing them to the other side, apparently because this jittery cartooning is just so life-like.

A similar argument was made to explain the drastic spike in lasagna sales during Garfield the cat's comic-page heyday. But, really, such hand-wringing over the public's perceived lack of good sense has already bitten the Obama campaign, but good, during the whole "guns and God" ordeal. How about this for a change in politics as usual: Trust the people to get the joke.

We the people have gotten the joke before. George W. Bush managed to prevail in two elections despite merciless satire by our most popular comics (here's looking at you, Will Ferrell). Voters -- even the non-Ivy Leaguers! -- were able to separate a good joke from what they genuinely like (oops, "liked") about the man as a leader. More recently, Hillary Clinton not only endured a "Saturday Night Live" caricature but also turned in some of her best campaign performances in its aftermath. She got the joke. We got the joke. Everybody had a good time, even, yes, in the heat of a political season.

Unfortunately, Democrats don't seem ready to fire off many smiles these days, despite Obama's historic candidacy and the good vibes that once surrounded him. The constant tut-tutting by liberal politicos and pundits over our most entertaining political superstar, former President Bill Clinton, has been disheartening. Commentators have portrayed Bill's every utterance and gesture as an affront to the purity and goodness that is Barack Obama.

Beware, defenders of the faith -- there's no political animal more despised by Americans than the sacred cow.

Worst of all, the outcry against The New Yorker takes away from Obama his preferred and highly effective way of dealing with controversy -- to turn the momentum of manufactured political moments to his advantage. The Obama campaign of old would've simply pointed out how good and All-American it is to see the scare tactics of politics-as-usual satirized so cleverly, to see the fear-mongers get their comeuppance with a wink and a smile. Then Obama would have asked Americans to join his crusade for a better tomorrow. And we all could've had a good laugh today.

If there's any part of American life that requires humor, even edgy humor, to endure, it's presidential politics. Barack, be for change, be for hope, be for humor!

(Billy Warden and Greg Behr are communications strategists based in Raleigh.)