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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GREAT JOURNALISM, SLOW FUNDRAISING

Our team has been on fire lately—publishing sweeping, one-of-a-kind investigations, ambitious, groundbreaking projects, and even releasing “the holy shit documentary of the year.” And that’s on top of protecting free and fair elections and standing up to bullies and BS when others in the media don’t.

Yet, we just came up pretty short on our first big fundraising campaign since Mother Jones and the Center for Investigative Reporting joined forces.

So, two things:

1) If you value the journalism we do but haven’t pitched in over the last few months, please consider doing so now—we urgently need a lot of help to make up for lost ground.

2) If you’re not ready to donate but you’re interested enough in our work to be reading this, please consider signing up for our free Mother Jones Daily newsletter to get to know us and our reporting better. Maybe once you do, you’ll see it’s something worth supporting.

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