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Here’s a trivial little tidbit from the latest NBC/Wall Street Journal poll:

What a difference a couple of months makes. Nothing at all has changed in Obama’s actual handling of the BP spill, of course. He’s doing exactly the same things he was doing back in June. But now the leak has finally been capped, and that must mean he’s doing a better job, right?

Fascinatingly, though, the poll also includes a comparison to approval ratings of George Bush’s handling of Hurricane Katrina, and in that case time definitely didn’t heal all wounds. In the immediate aftermath of the storm Bush’s approval-disapproval rating was 48-48. A year later it had dropped to 36-53. I guess by 2006 people were just really, really tired of George Bush.

 

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We need to start raising significantly more in donations from our online community of readers, especially from those who read Mother Jones regularly but have never decided to pitch in because you figured others always will. We also need long-time and new donors, everyone, to keep showing up for us.

In "It's Not a Crisis. This Is the New Normal," we explain, as matter-of-factly as we can, what exactly our finances look like, how brutal it is to sustain quality journalism right now, what makes Mother Jones different than most of the news out there, and why support from readers is the only thing that keeps us going. Despite the challenges, we're optimistic we can increase the share of online readers who decide to donate—starting with hitting an ambitious $300,000 goal in just three weeks to make sure we can finish our fiscal year break-even in the coming months.

Please learn more about how Mother Jones works and our 47-year history of doing nonprofit journalism that you don't elsewhere—and help us do it with a donation if you can. We've already cut expenses and hitting our online goal is critical right now.

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