Soothing Words for a Crisis

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SOOTHING WORDS FOR A CRISIS….Pretend you are an ordinary American. I know that’s hard: as a reader of an elitist coastal blog you’re barely even an American at all. But pretend. You just spent a hundred bucks yesterday to fill up your gas tank. You didn’t get a raise this year. You’ve got some unpaid bills you’re juggling. Your neighbor across the street just got laid off. Property taxes are coming due next month. Your car is making a funny noise. You just got a memo from HR telling you that the paycheck deduction for healthcare premiums is up again and your take-home pay will be $100 lighter next week.

You turn on the TV. At the commercial break there’s a two-minute ad from Barack Obama about the meltdown on Wall Street. If you actually sit through it, here’s what he says he’s going to do to make things better:

  • Provide a $1000 tax cut for the middle class

  • End the “anything goes” culture on Wall Street

  • Fast track a plan to end our dependence on Mideast oil

  • Crack down on lobbyists

  • End the war in Iraq

Jonathan Stein comments: “It is everything Obama has been criticized for being on the stump these past several weeks: thoughtful, measured, and post-partisan. It takes no jabs at John McCain or George W. Bush. In the last few days, though, Obama and his ads have hit harder; obviously the campaign felt the content of this ad is too serious to be presented in that style. Key question: Does it hold your attention?”

Well, ordinary American, what do you say? Does it?

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BEFORE YOU CLICK AWAY!

Mother Jones was founded to do journalism differently. We stand for justice and democracy. We reject false equivalence. We go after stories others don’t. We’re a nonprofit newsroom, because the kind of truth-telling investigations we do doesn’t happen under corporate ownership.

And the essential ingredient that makes all this possible? Readers like you.

It’s reader support that enables Mother Jones to devote the time and resources to report the facts that are too difficult, expensive, or inconvenient for other news outlets to uncover. Please help with a donation today if you can—even a few bucks will make a real difference. A monthly gift would be incredible.

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