The Mind of America, Part 2

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Via the latest New York Times poll, here’s the Obama administration’s problem in a nutshell:

This is, of course, a simple factual question with a simple factual answer: Obama has lowered taxes for virtually all Americans. Unfortunately, hardly anyone knows it.

In other news, people hate Democrats but hate Republicans even more; they’re unsure if Obama has a clear plan for solving the nation’s problems but they’re absolutely sure Republicans don’t; they think Democrats have better ideas than Republicans; they think Democrats are more likely than Republicans to help the middle class and small businesses; they blame George Bush and Wall Street for the crappy economy; they think the stimulus package probably improved the economy;1 they support Obama’s plan to allow Bush’s tax cuts for the rich to expire; they think Obama is doing more to improve the economy than congressional Republicans; and they hate Sarah Palin and are less likely to vote for anyone she supports.2

Oh, and they’re going to kick Democrats out of office this November anyway. Bummer, guys.

1But they’re less likely to vote for someone who supported it anyway.

2In fairness, the public also continues to dislike the healthcare bill and they continue to think that Republicans are better on terrorism than Democrats. That’s about it for favorable impressions of Republicans.

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In "It's Not a Crisis. This Is the New Normal," we explain, as matter-of-factly as we can, what exactly our finances look like, how brutal it is to sustain quality journalism right now, what makes Mother Jones different than most of the news out there, and why support from readers is the only thing that keeps us going. Despite the challenges, we're optimistic we can increase the share of online readers who decide to donate—starting with hitting an ambitious $300,000 goal in just three weeks to make sure we can finish our fiscal year break-even in the coming months.

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