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A regular reader emails to tell me to wake up and smell the mooseburgers:

It’s easy as hell to laugh at Palin but I think Democrats are making a big mistake if they don’t start taking her much more seriously as a credible challenger to Obama. People are in a sour-as-hell mood and if the economy doesn’t pick up dramatically by 2012, Obama is going to be toast. Heaven help our Congressional majority next year.

Yes, Palin speaks in trite, childish platitudes but so do most Americans. Face it, the vast majority of our voters are not exactly rocket scientists and for many of them she will be a perfectly fine alternative to Obama.

Listen, I’m the guy who was convinced the American people would never choose the “amiable dunce” Reagan or the stupendously stupid Bush over Democrats who had IQ scores that couldn’t possibly be any less than 30 or 40 points above their opponents’.

Given the state of today’s Republican Party, I’d say Palin has an excellent shot at the nomination and if our economy still sucks in 2012 she’ll have an excellent shot at beating Obama. So, let’s take her for the more serious threat that she actually is and not as some poor joke. Remember, the dullest knife in the drawer is often the quickest to cut us.

I’m pretty sure I disagree.  But let’s open up the floor for discussion.  Sarah Palin: joke or serious threat?  Vote in comments.

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WE CAME UP SHORT.

We just wrapped up a shorter-than-normal, urgent-as-ever fundraising drive and we came up about $45,000 short of our $300,000 goal.

That means we're going to have upwards of $350,000, maybe more, to raise in online donations between now and June 30, when our fiscal year ends and we have to get to break-even. And even though there's zero cushion to miss the mark, we won't be all that in your face about our fundraising again until June.

So we urgently need this specific ask, what you're reading right now, to start bringing in more donations than it ever has. The reality, for these next few months and next few years, is that we have to start finding ways to grow our online supporter base in a big way—and we're optimistic we can keep making real headway by being real with you about this.

Because the bottom line: Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism Mother Jones exists 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 hope you might consider pitching in before moving on to whatever it is you're about to do next. We really need to see if we'll be able to raise more with this real estate on a daily basis than we have been, so we're hoping to see a promising start.

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