October 13, 2011

Mitt Romney’s Bum of the Month Club

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First we had Romney vs. Trump, then Romney vs. Bachmann, then Romney vs. Perry, and now we have Romney vs. Cain. Remember Joe Louis’ Bum of the Month club? That’s what the Republican primary campaign looks like this year.

The problem with Herman Cain, of course, is basically the same as the problem with Donald Trump: He knows how to stir the troops, but the whole campaign is basically a joke to him—and even tea partiers aren’t going to stick with a guy who treats the presidency like a joke. The zingers are all great, but if you want to be the leader of the free world you can’t perform stupid burlesque about not knowing anything about Uzbeki-beki-beki-stan; if you want to run the economy you can’t build your whole campaign around a corporate slogan like 9/9/9 that even the marks know is ridiculous; and if you want to be commander-in-chief you can’t transparently not care about foreign policy. It’s all fun for a while, but it wears thin pretty quickly when it becomes clear you’re really campaigning to get a Fox News show, not to sit in the Oval Office.

Anyway, to show this graphically, I’ve helpfully extended the latest poll of polls from Real Clear Politics. Perry might do a little better than I’m predicting, but not much. As for Cain, he better enjoy his moment as Mitt Romney’s latest bum. It won’t last much longer.

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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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