Does Vanity Fair Really Understand the New Yorker's Obama Cover?

Last week, when Stephanie was rounding up all the talk over the New Yorker‘s controversial Obama cover, for which we’re sure you’re beyond familiar with by now, we assumed correctly that that noise off in the distance was people revving their engines to come up with parodies. And by now, you’ve likely seen the dozen or so that have been passed around over and over again. But none have come from from a source so close to the New Yorker, than that from their building neighbor, Vanity Fair, who offered up this parody showing an geriatric McCain and a drug-addicted Cindy. The reviews have been mixed, from “eh” to “hilarious!” but the commentary we enjoyed the most came from Daniel Larson who clearly has a polished satire radar and complained that Vanity Fair just wasn’t understanding the original piece at all, because everything in the Obama cover was poking at falsehoods, whereas everything in the fake McCain version is almost completely true: