Let’s Talk Clinton: Henry Louis Gates Jr.

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. . . next luminary . . .

The first thing Clinton should do is enumerate a vision and stick to it. Even people who hated Reagan miss his consistency. You knew where he stood. You never know where Clinton stands and he doesn’t seem loyal to his own vision.

With the exception of Haiti, Clinton has failed to find the American role in a new world order. But I suspect that his Haiti policy augurs a new day in his positioning himself as a force for democracy around the world.

I’d like to see President Clinton go to Cuba. I can’t believe Castro isn’t looking for a graceful way out. He knows Cuba is dead under him. Let him save face with a democratic election.

On the domestic front the health plan is important, but Clinton promised universal coverage. Let him say, “This is what I ran on, and I believe in it, and, if necessary, I’ll go down with it.” When he ran and even a few months after he was elected, I knew what he stood for, but now I don’t and it’s too bad. He’s a good guy and smart, and he has good instincts, but apparently wants to be loved.

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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 canā€™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.

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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