Reid: Sharron Angle, the GOP Extremist?

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Today Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.) released a new campaign ad bashing his conservative, Tea Party-endorsed opponent, former Nevada assemblywoman Sharron Angle. In it, Reid’s campaign rips Angle for saying that Social Security is “welfare,” and for claiming to want to eliminate both Social Security and Medicare. (Angle told Fox News’ Sean Hannity earlier this month that she “want[s] to save Medicare and Social Security.” She added that lawmakers need to “personalize” the two programs so “the government can’t go in and raid it any more.”) The ad concludes with a black-and-white screen that reads, “Sharron Angle: Just too extreme.” Here’s the ad:

This ad, of course, is just the beginning of what’s sure to be a barrage of messaging from Reid’s camp and his Democratic backers. They’re certainly not lacking for dubious statements of Angle’s to harp on; after all, this is the woman who recently claimed that unemployed people receiving government support are “spoiled.” You can bet there’s an ad in the works making light of that gaffe.

For Angle’s part, she has yet to wade into the ad wars, so far releasing only one online commercial and mostly avoiding the press as she builds up her campaign operations. But you can bet she’ll come out swinging soon enough.

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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.

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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.

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