August 8, 2008

Okay, Folks. Ready for a Deep Breath?

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Because here’s your chance to grab one. I just got a copy of Barack Obama’s public schedule and it looks like this.

Friday, August 8: “Welcome to Hawaii” Event in Honolulu, HI.

Saturday, August 9 to Friday, August 15: No public events.

That’s called a vacation. It will be interesting to see if Obama will come out of hiding to react to major international news, an important investigative report, or a particularly vicious attack by the McCain campaign. To not do so would be a pretty foolhardy attempt to impose his will on the furiously paced 24-hour news cycle. I assume he’ll do it. He might even get in a couple photo-ops along the way — as someone remarked to me earlier, he’s just got to be careful to avoid the windsurfing.

Meanwhile, the Olympics start tonight, meaning that what little news there will be in the presidential race will get even less coverage. The McCain campaign might do well to think of next week like a NBA coach: when the other guy removes his big, you do the same to get yours some rest. Surely McCain could use it.

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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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