The Mother Jones Poll

There were 587 respondents to last week’s poll. Here’s what they had to say. Be sure to participate in our latest poll. Also, check out the <a href="poll_archive.html">results</a> of our previous polls.

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1. Who would you most like to see lose in the November elections?

32% Jesse Helms

27% Newt Gingrich

9% Richard Gephardt

4% Tom DeLay

4% David Bonior

7% None

17% (Write-in)

…And our number one write-in was…Bill Clinton, with 30 votes.

2. Who said these famous debate soundbites?

a. Bob Dole called WWII “a Democrat war” during the 1976 vice-presidential debate with Walter Modale.

b. John F. Kennedy said “I think it’s time America started moving again” during the 1960 presidential debate with Richard Nixon.

c. James Stockdale said “Who am I? What am I doing here?” during the 1992 vice-presidential debate with Al Gore and Dan Quayle.

d. Ronald Reagan asked “Are you and your family better off than you were four years ago?” during the 1980 presidential debate with Jimmy Carter.

e. Damon Stoudamire, of the Toronto Raptors basketball team said “I think I’m a born leader. I’ve been preparing for things like this all my life” in respose to being named team captain on October 7, 1996.

f. Gerald Ford said “There is no Soviet domination of Eastern Europe” during the 1976 presidential debate with Jimmy Carter.

3. Who would you want to be president in 2000?

24% Al Gore

19% Ralph Nader

8% Colin Powell

8% Bill Bradley

7% Dianne Feinstein

5% Jack Kemp

5% Christine Todd Whitman

3% Governor George W. Bush

21% None of the above

4. How many times will the following words be said at next Wednesday’s debate? [Choose a number between 0 and 10, or “more than 10” times.]
The person with the closest answer wins a Hellraiser t-shirt. (To be based on a word count from AllPolitics transcript of debate.)

a. “Tobacco” — 6 times

b. “Campaign finance reform” — Once

c. Bob Dole says “liberal” — 3 times

d. Bob Dole refers to himself as “Bob Dole” — 3 times

e. Clinton says “That dog won’t hunt” — 0 times

f. Dole says, “I’m not going to make this an issue, but…” — 0 times

g. Dole mentions “Whitewater” — 0 times

And the winner is Carrie Stewart! Congratulations, Carrie!

5. If the elections were held today, and all these candidates had an equal chance of winning, who would you vote for?

32% Bill Clinton (Democrat)

29% Harry Browne (Libertarian)

26% Ralph Nader (Green Party)

7% Bob Dole (Republican)

3% Ross Perot (Reform Party)

1.2% John Hagelin (Natural Law Party)

.5% Howard Phillips (U.S. Taxpayers Party)

.3% Lyndon Larouche (Democrat)

1% None

6. If the elections were held today, and you were restricted to just these two candidates, which one would you vote for?

63% Bill Clinton

17% Bob Dole

20% None

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WE'LL BE BLUNT.

We have a considerable $390,000 gap in our online fundraising budget that we have to close by June 30. There is no wiggle room, we've already cut everything we can, and we urgently need more readers to pitch in—especially from this specific blurb you're reading right now.

We'll also be quite transparent and level-headed with you about this.

In "News Never Pays," our fearless CEO, Monika Bauerlein, connects the dots on several concerning media trends that, taken together, expose the fallacy behind the tragic state of journalism right now: That the marketplace will take care of providing the free and independent press citizens in a democracy need, and the Next New Thing to invest millions in will fix the problem. Bottom line: Journalism that serves the people needs the support of the people. That's the Next New Thing.

And it's what MoJo and our community of readers have been doing for 47 years now.

But staying afloat is harder than ever.

In "This Is Not a Crisis. It's The New Normal," we explain, as matter-of-factly as we can, what exactly our finances look like, why this moment is particularly urgent, and how we can best communicate that without screaming OMG PLEASE HELP over and over. We also touch on our history and how our nonprofit model makes Mother Jones different than most of the news out there: Letting us go deep, focus on underreported beats, and bring unique perspectives to the day's news.

You're here for reporting like that, not fundraising, but one cannot exist without the other, and it's vitally important that we hit our intimidating $390,000 number in online donations by June 30.

And we hope you might consider pitching in before moving on to whatever it is you're about to do next. It's going to be a nail-biter, and we really need to see donations from this specific ask coming in strong if we're going to get there.

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