April 27, 2007

The Real Headline from the Dems’ Debate: “Nothing Happened”

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Every news outlet seems to be leading with the debate the Democratic presidential candidates had in South Carolina last night. The reporters had to mine a thoroughly uneventful evening for a news hook, and so if you look around the web you’ll find stuff like, “Everyone attacked Obama!” or “Obama was great, Hillary was awful!” or “Democrats target Bush!” Or whatever. In reality, here’s what happened: nothing.

Obama was Obama. Edwards was Edwards. Clinton was Clinton. They didn’t lash out at anyone except President Bush, which they’ve been doing every day for months. Richardson talks too much. Joe Biden knows what he’s talking about, but has no chance. Dennis Kucinich doesn’t talk about issues, he talks about philosophies and how they lead to positions on issues. He doesn’t have a chance either. Chris Dodd was a non-entity. Mike Gravel (pronounced Gruh-VELL) is crazy and hilarious and you don’t know who he is. But let’s emphasize this, he’s really crazy. Brian Williams was a fine moderator until the last ten minutes, when he let things get out of control and Obama and Kucinich started bickering about bombing people.

Everyone was so careful and timid and uninterested in attacking their opponents that they could have debated for three days instead of 90 minutes and there wouldn’t have been a single worthwhile news hook. And that’s all you need to know.

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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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