January 15, 2007

Dobson: “I Would Not Vote for John McCain Under Any Circumstances”

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Bad news for John McCain. His very high profile attempts to make nice with Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson have not quieted the ire of James Dobson.

Dobson, who is not allowed to pass judgment on political candidates in his capacity as the head of a non-profit ministry, instead passes judgment as a private individual. Thus, we get sentences from a new article that include, “Speaking as a private individual, I would not vote for John McCain under any circumstances,” and “Well, let me say that I am not in the office. I’m in the little condo so I can speak for myself and not for Focus on the Family… [but] I pray that we won’t get stuck with him.”

Does Dobson know that as America’s most prominent evangelical leader, his thinking on politics is respected and sought out by thousands, maybe millions, of evangelical Christians? Of course. Is it legal for him to do this sort of wink-wink political punditry? Kind of, yeah. We addressed all this and more in our 2005 special issue called “God and Country: Where the Christian Right is Leading Us.”

This all has to do with John McCain’s former support of gay unions and abortion rights, and statements during the 2000 campaign that the leaders of the religious right are bad for America. Not easily undone, it seems.

(Hat Tip, AMERICAblog)

Update: For Dobson’s place in the evangelical universe, see this nifty spread.

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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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