December 8, 2009

Obama Challenges Charlie Brown, Christmas, For the Spotlight

Photo used under a Creatives Commons license by Flickr user <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/pagedooley/" target="_blank">kevindooley</a>

Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.


For many Americans, December 1 was a night to crowd around the fireplace, drink hot cider, and treat themselves to a once-a-year viewing of A Charlie Brown Christmas. But that very same night also featured a major policy speech by President Obama on the war in Afghanistan. Coincidence?

Arlington, Tenn. mayor Russell Wiseman doesn’t think so. Taking out his channel-surfing frustrations on (where else?) Facebook, Wiseman saw the speech’s timing as a carefully crafted ploy to blur the true meaning of Christmas:

“Ok, so, this is total crap, we sit the kids down to watch ‘The Charlie Brown Christmas Special’ and our muslim president is there, what a load…..try to convince me that wasn’t done on purpose” [sic].

As tends to happen, Wiseman issued a not-so-apologetic apology yesterday, calling his Facebook note “a poor attempt at tongue-in-cheek humor amongst friends.” Since when do politicians with social networking pages assume that what they post is just among friends? It’s not all bad news for the mayor, though. In fact, he seems well on his way to becoming the next Joe Wilson: The Memphis Commerical-Appeal notes that the statement has already inspired calls for a Palin-Wiseman ticket in 2012. His supporters have even crafted a can’t-lose campaign slogan: “We support Russell Wiseman and Sarah Palin because they stand up for liberty, Charlie Brown, and Christmas.”

If Obama’s plan is to drown out popular movies with policy speeches, he’d better buy Jon Favreau a fresh case of Sparks and start thinking seriously about tort reform and farm subsidies: ABC Family is currently on day 8 of its programming spectacular “25 days of Christmas” (mark your calendars: The Santa Clause 2 airs December 11).

So, dear readers, which Christmas special would you most like Obama to drown out next? And what should he talk about?

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.

payment methods

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.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate