January 18, 2009

Team Obama

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TEAM OBAMA….The New York Times magazine’s main feature this week is a portrait gallery of Obama people, ranging all the way from superstars like Joe Biden and Hillary Clinton to people you’ve probably never heard of, like Marvin Nicholson (White House trip director) and Mark Lippert (NSC chief of staff). I’ll confess that the (by now) ancient trope of taking a series of stark, harshly lit photos against a plain background leaves me a little cold, and I guess it left photographer Nadav Kander a little cold too because he decided to try to add something more to the shots:

We asked them to bring an item that would tell us a bit more about themselves and got a whole variation of things. The reason for doing it was that when you omit the context of time and place from a photograph, i.e. photographing them on a white background, the tiniest gestures really show.

So: what would you bring if you were asked to be part of this rogue’s gallery? My obvious choice would be a cat, but that’s probably not too practical. Maybe a rolled up copy of Mother Jones? A USC baseball cap? An orange? A laptop computer?

My favorite photograph is the one of Peter Orszag gloriously arrayed in full nerd pack. Do you think this is standard dress for him? Or did he ham it up a bit for the photographer?

My other favorite is Timothy Geithner, who, oddly enough given his background and reputation, seems to really know how to hold a camera’s attention. That might come in handy during his confirmation hearing.

In other photos, Larry Summers looks like he’s thinking “Just press the damn shutter button already.” Samantha Power looks mesmerizing. Tom Daschle looks surprisingly friendly. David Axelrod looks like your favorite uncle. Ellen Moran looks like a wax replica. James Clyburn looks like he just won the lottery. Mark Lippert and James Jones look like they’re in a police lineup. Desirée Rogers looks like she’s stunning and she knows it. Carol Browner looks remarkably chic for a policy wonk. Ken Salazar looks like a mark on Leverage. Jim Messina looks like this is the first time in his life that he’s ever had to wear a suit. Eric Shinseki looks like a general, dammit. Hilda Solis looks pensive and sad.

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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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