September 24, 2008

McCain Lurches Again

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McCAIN LURCHES AGAIN….OK, let me get this straight. After spending a full week flailing madly, tossing around wild charges almost daily, and careening from free market deregulator to the second coming of William Jennings Bryan — after all that, John McCain is now trying to gravely present himself as a man above politics: suspending his campaign, asking for Friday’s debate to be postponed, and calling for a statesmanlike bipartisan bailout compromise.

Spare me. Let me guess: the debate should be postponed until October 2, which, sadly, will mean eliminating the vice presidential debate entirely. What a bummer, eh? And the guy whose campaign is funded by federal funds thinks all fundraising should be suspended. Imagine that. And the senator who hasn’t showed up for a roll call vote since April suddenly thinks Capitol Hill is the place everyone needs to be. That should speed things up and calm down the financial markets, shouldn’t it?

The cynicism is pretty stunning. Instead, how about switching the subject of the first debate to economic issues and actually hearing what John McCain thinks we ought to do? He does have a serious grasp on the issues, doesn’t he? Why discuss them only behind closed doors?

WE CAME UP SHORT.

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WE CAME UP SHORT.

We just wrapped up a shorter-than-normal, urgent-as-ever fundraising drive and we came up about $45,000 short of our $300,000 goal.

That means we're going to have upwards of $350,000, maybe more, to raise in online donations between now and June 30, when our fiscal year ends and we have to get to break-even. And even though there's zero cushion to miss the mark, we won't be all that in your face about our fundraising again until June.

So we urgently need this specific ask, what you're reading right now, to start bringing in more donations than it ever has. The reality, for these next few months and next few years, is that we have to start finding ways to grow our online supporter base in a big way—and we're optimistic we can keep making real headway by being real with you about this.

Because the bottom line: Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism Mother Jones exists to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

And we hope you might consider pitching in before moving on to whatever it is you're about to do next. We really need to see if we'll be able to raise more with this real estate on a daily basis than we have been, so we're hoping to see a promising start.

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