October 9, 1996

The Mother Jones Poll

We <a href="/news/feature/1996/10/results100496.html">asked</a> our readers to suggest a new campaign slogan for Bob Dole — one that he could actually remember. We were inundated with responses: plenty of bad old age jokes, tobacco references, citrus fruit puns, tasteless arm jokes, stage-diving jokes, and gratuitous sex jokes. Plus <a href="/news/feature/1996/10/duh_dole.ram">one</a> that we just didn’t think would work so well in print. Here’s the MoJo Wire picks for the…

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Top Ten New Campaign Slogans for Bob Dole:

10. “Bob Dole, I’ve known more presidents than you can name.” (Hector Acuna)

9. “The anti-drug (except tobacco, or other addictions that pay well) President.” (Dwight Ratcliff)

8. “Sure I’m old, but I’ve got a Web page.” (Dave Sanders)

7. “Let’s turn America into a Pineapple Republic.” (J. Peter Saint-Andre)

6. “The more Bics you flick, the more Doles you pick!” (Lee Eisenstein)

5. “He puts the O back in GOP.” (Dave Isaacson)

4. “I did *not* fall off the stage. I thought that was the mosh pit.” (“fletcher”)

3. “You kids knock it off back there or I’ll stop this country and you can all walk to the 21st century!!” (John Gerardi)

2. “Backwards or forwards — it’s still Bob.” (Mike MacHarg)

1. “Newt’s in the past, Liddy don’t sass, My tax cut’s a gas, Let’s kick Willy’s ass.” (Nick Teti)

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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.

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.

Because the in-depth journalism on underreported beats and unique perspectives on the daily news you turn to Mother Jones for is only possible because readers fund us. Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism we exist to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

And we need readers to show up for us big time—again.

Getting just 10 percent of the people who care enough about our work to be reading this blurb to part with a few bucks would be utterly transformative for us, and that's very much what we need to keep charging hard in this financially uncertain, high-stakes year.

If you can right now, please support the journalism you get from Mother Jones with a donation at whatever amount works for you. And please do it now, before you move on to whatever you're about to do next and think maybe you'll get to it later, because every gift matters and we really need to see a strong response if we're going to raise the $253,000 we need in less than three weeks.

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