Person of the Day: John McCain

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SENATOR JOHN McCAIN

When people finally wonder why McCain faded in the campaign they can start with this interview yesterday on CNN. McCain was claiming that there were neighborhoods in Baghdad that were so much improved you could go out for a walk in them.

“General Petraeus goes out there every day. The success we’re experiencing, (it’s now possible) for Americans…to go into 2 of the 5 neighborhoods in a secure fashion.”

Soon CNN’s Baghdad correspondent, Michael Ware, was live from Baghdad with a response. “No way on earth can a Westerner, particularly an American, stroll the streets of this capitol of 5 million people. If Al Qaeda doesn’t get wind of you or one of the Sunni insurgent groups don’t descend on you, if someone doesn’t tip off a Shia militia, then the nearest criminal gang is just going to see dollar signs and scoop you up. You’d barely last 20 minutes out there. I honestly don’t know what part of Neverland Senator McCain is talking about when he says you can go strolling in Baghdad.”

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WE'LL BE BLUNT

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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