September 1, 2008

Just Askin’ Indeed

For indispensable reporting on the coronavirus crisis and more, subscribe to Mother Jones' newsletters.


JUST ASKIN’ INDEED….Jakes Tapper asks:

What would the response be if Sen. Barack Obama, D-Illinois, and his wife Michelle had a pregnant unmarried teenage daughter?

Yeah, yeah, I know how annoying this kind of conjecture is. But I couldn’t help thinking about it. Here’s how my mind wandered: Fox News talking heads….hmmm….solemn statement of faux support from John McCain….followed by the usual innuendo-laden videos from the cretins who run his communications shop….James Dobson would release a statement and it sure as hell wouldn’t be this one….Steve Sailer would weigh in on black family culture….Charles Murray would be next….The Corner would slowly build to a screeching crescendo….Jeremiah Wright….permissive liberal culture….Rush Limbaugh….Sean Hannity….Michelle Malkin….um….um….um….

And then some dude from Porlock IMed me and I shook my head like I was trying to wake up from a bad dream. But it would have been a damn hurricane. The noise machine would have been in danger of meltdown. Does anyone really doubt that?

THE BIG PICTURE

You expect the big picture, and it's our job at Mother Jones to give it to you. And right now, so many of the troubles we face are the making not of a virus, but of the quest for profit, political or economic (and not just from the man in the White House who could have offered leadership and comfort but instead gave us bleach).

In "News Is Just Like Waste Management," we unpack what the coronavirus crisis has meant for journalism, including Mother Jones’, and how we can rise to the challenge. If you're able to, this is a critical moment to support our nonprofit journalism with a donation: We've scoured our budget and made the cuts we can without impairing our mission, and we hope to raise $400,000 from our community of online readers to help keep our big reporting projects going because this extraordinary pandemic-plus-election year is no time to pull back.

THE BIG PICTURE

You expect the big picture, and it's our job at Mother Jones to give it to you. And right now, so many of the troubles we face are the making not of a virus, but of the quest for profit, political or economic (and not just from the man in the White House who could have offered leadership and comfort but instead gave us bleach).

In "News Is Just Like Waste Management," we unpack what the coronavirus crisis has meant for journalism, including Mother Jones’, and how we can rise to the challenge. If you're able to, this is a critical moment to support our nonprofit journalism with a donation: We've scoured our budget and made the cuts we can without impairing our mission, and we hope to raise $400,000 from our community of online readers to help keep our big reporting projects going because this extraordinary pandemic-plus-election year is no time to pull back.

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our newsletters

Subscribe and we'll send Mother Jones straight to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate

We have a new comment system! We are now using Coral, from Vox Media, for comments on all new articles. We'd love your feedback.