This is fascinating. You've probably seen this popping up. It first appeared in LA:

The UK's Mail Online says:

The right-wing editor of the American Thinker website, Thomas Lifson, wrote today: 'It is starting.

'Open mockery of of Barack Obama, as disillusionment sets in with the man, his policies, and the phony image of a race-healing, brilliant, scholarly middle-of-the-roader.'

But the President's supporters have condemned the image, calling it 'mean-spirited and dangerous.'

A spokesman from the Los Angeles urban policy unit said that depicting the president as demonic and a socialist 'goes beyond political spoofery.'

So what was this?

I don't know about you, but I call it "free speech". That's what the left called it then. Funny though - now that the shoe is on the other foot, this sort of spoofery is "mean-spirited and dangerous" as far as the left is concerned. And, of course, the first reaction of some is to try to make it a racial thing (the same publication which published the cover above, naturally).

And then there was this from Vanity Fair. Seems there was no problem at all with Joker parodies in July of 2008:

As one of the commenters at Vanity Fair said:

Poor Joker, he doesn't deserve this. Bush isn't good enough to wear his face.

Quit whining. Save your outrage for someone who hasn't seen your act before.

[Crossposted at QandO]