The Mind of America, Part 2

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Via the latest New York Times poll, here’s the Obama administration’s problem in a nutshell:

This is, of course, a simple factual question with a simple factual answer: Obama has lowered taxes for virtually all Americans. Unfortunately, hardly anyone knows it.

In other news, people hate Democrats but hate Republicans even more; they’re unsure if Obama has a clear plan for solving the nation’s problems but they’re absolutely sure Republicans don’t; they think Democrats have better ideas than Republicans; they think Democrats are more likely than Republicans to help the middle class and small businesses; they blame George Bush and Wall Street for the crappy economy; they think the stimulus package probably improved the economy;1 they support Obama’s plan to allow Bush’s tax cuts for the rich to expire; they think Obama is doing more to improve the economy than congressional Republicans; and they hate Sarah Palin and are less likely to vote for anyone she supports.2

Oh, and they’re going to kick Democrats out of office this November anyway. Bummer, guys.

1But they’re less likely to vote for someone who supported it anyway.

2In fairness, the public also continues to dislike the healthcare bill and they continue to think that Republicans are better on terrorism than Democrats. That’s about it for favorable impressions of Republicans.

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WE'LL BE BLUNT

It is astonishingly hard keeping a newsroom afloat these days, and we need to raise $253,000 in online donations quickly, by October 7.

The short of it: Last year, we had to cut $1 million from our budget so we could have any chance of breaking even by the time our fiscal year ended in June. And despite a huge rally from so many of you leading up to the deadline, we still came up a bit short on the whole. We can’t let that happen again. We have no wiggle room to begin with, and now we have a hole to dig out of.

Readers also told us to just give it to you straight when we need to ask for your support, and seeing how matter-of-factly explaining our inner workings, our challenges and finances, can bring more of you in has been a real silver lining. So our online membership lead, Brian, lays it all out for you in his personal, insider account (that literally puts his skin in the game!) of how urgent things are right now.

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