January 16, 2009

Waiting for Tuesday

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WAITING FOR TUESDAY….Ramesh Ponnuru thinks the Obama celebrations have gotten a wee bit out of hand:

At least one segment of the economy is booming: the market in Obama kitsch. The dedicated supporter of the incoming President need not content himself with a T shirt or bumper sticker. Also available are Obama coasters, lava lamps, jigsaw puzzles, mugs, skateboards, toy trains, CDs, DVDs and, of course, commemorative dinner plates….Marvel Comics is running a special Inaugural issue of Spider-Man.

….There is no recent analogue to the madness — er, hopefulness — that has seized Obama’s fans. Some journalists have been comparing him with F.D.R. and even Lincoln. To find a similar episode of enthusiasm for an incoming President, you might have to go back to 1829….The new President, Andrew Jackson, was his era’s version of change….An unprecedented number of Americans trekked to see him take the oath of office. His Inaugural was a massive party at the White House, one that got so out of hand that Jackson was forced to lodge elsewhere.

I’ll grant there’s something to this. But there’s another side to it: this outpouring of excitement is based as much on relief that George Bush is finally leaving office as it is on optimism about Obama taking over. Obama is obviously a charismatic figure, but if he were succeeding Gerald Ford or Ronald Reagan or George Bush Sr., I don’t think he’d be getting half the adulation he is. But Bush has been a lame duck for two long years now, and public weariness over his chronic and all-too-obvious ineptitude has reached depths seldom seen in a democracy. At this point, people would be relieved and hopeful if Mike Gravel were the one taking the oath of office on Tuesday.

It is both Obama’s good fortune and his bad luck to be taking over from the most hapless president since Hoover. The t-shirts and coffee mugs and other nicknacks may be a little over the top, but they need to be because they’re doing double duty: they’re a celebration of George Bush’s exit as much as they are of Obama’s arrival.

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From the desk of Mother Jones CEO, Monika Bauerlein...

Newsrooms can be funded in many ways. One of the most controversial (and volatile) ways is by a for-profit corporation or a billionaire owner. We see it across the headlines on a weekly basis: the claw backs in public media, the gutting of The Washington Post, the bending over backwards to appeal to Trump and his allies.

But not here.

When Mother Jones first started publishing 50 years ago, our founders made a critical decision: to be a reader-supported nonprofit. They knew that no corporate owner would be interested in a muckraking newsroom; they also knew that no muckraking newsroom would be interested in following the agenda of a corporate owner.

And so, we’ve been reader-funded for half a century. We rely on contributions from our readers—readers like you—whether it’s $50, or $15 a month, or whatever fits your budget. People give what they can, and every donation makes a difference for our newsroom, which has grown tremendously—in size and reach and renown—since its inception in 1976.

You may be wondering: What does it take to publish an investigation? And what does my donation actually fund? The answers are one and the same: It takes people, resources, and time. And that’s what your donation funds directly.

Every donation Mother Jones receives from readers fortifies our newsroom, whether we’re covering underreported scandals out of Washington, DC, or the most important news of the day. And right now, each donation will be doubled because of our $50,000 match. So when you make a donation—$5, $50, any amount—it’ll go twice as far.

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