Well, The New Yorker cover got me thinking.
Although I've read attempts to find comparable caricatures of McCain, notably the idea that his POW status raises suspicion of him as a Manchurian candidate, I'm having a hard time finding a comparable caricature. I'm having a hard time thinking about other presidential candidates whose narrative fictions have been so believable.
The idea that McCain is a Manchurian candidate doesn't have much credence. What other caricatures might there be? Bill Clinton as a womanizer? Oh, wait. not a fiction. Hillary Clinton in 1992 as a feminist? Oh wait, not a fiction. George W. as a frat boy man-child? Oh wait, not a fiction.
Has there ever been a candidate and his wife more misunderstood than Barack and Michelle Obama?