December 18, 2012

The Latest From the Fever Swamp: Concussiongate

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Hillary Clinton is widely viewed as the frontrunner for the 2016 Democratic nomination if she decides to run, and that’s prompted a lot of people to wonder how the right wing would react to a Hillary campaign. Have they learned to respect her over the past four years, or would it be Whitewater/Vince Foster/Travelgate all over again?

Anyone with a room-temperature IQ has already put money on Option B, and today brings fascinating new evidence that anyone taking the other side of that bet has already lost a bundle. You see, it turns out that the fever swamp thinks Hillary is faking the concussion she suffered over the weekend. Seriously. The Atlantic’s Alexander Abad-Santos rounds up the quotes:

Jim Treacher: “If she has a concussion, let’s see the medical report. Let’s see some proof that she’s not just stonewalling.”

John Bolton: “When you don’t want to go to a meeting or conference, or an event, you have a ‘diplomatic illness,’ … And this is a diplomatic illness to beat the band.”

Lucianne Goldberg: “Hillary has given us a great new excuse. Don’t call in with a cold or a bad tooth. Just say you have a concussion. It can last for days.”

There you have it: a little mini-preview of 2016 if Hillary decides to run.

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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.

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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.

The upshot: Being able to rally $253,000 in donations over these next few weeks is vitally important simply because it is the number that keeps us right on track, helping make sure we don't end up with a bigger gap than can be filled again, helping us avoid any significant (and knowable) cash-flow crunches for now. We used to be more nonchalant about coming up short this time of year, thinking we can make it by the time June rolls around. Not anymore.

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