December 2, 2011

Republicans Agree: Newt Is a Walking Time Bomb

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Hooray! We have bipartisan agreement at last. Political insiders on both sides of the aisle agree: Newt Gingrich would be a disaster for Republicans. National Journal quantifies this for us today:

This comes via Jonathan Bernstein, who gleefully passes along the following quotes:

  • “Winning the presidency is all about discipline, focus, and organization,” said one Republican Insider, “none of which are strong suits for Gingrich.”
  • “With Newt, we go to bed every night thinking that tomorrow might be the day he implodes,” said another Republican. “Not good for our confidence — or fundraising.”
  • A third Republican stated plainly, “Gingrich is not stable enough emotionally to be the nominee — let alone, the president.”
  • “Bigfoot dressed as a circus clown would have a better chance of beating President Obama than Newt Gingrich, a similarly farcical character,” quipped a Republican.
  • “Come on,” sighed another GOP Insider, “the White House is probably giving money to Gingrich as we speak.”

I guess Newt still has a wee bit of confidence building to do. But he’s a master of language as a key mechanism of control, so I’m sure he’s up to the job.

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WE'LL BE BLUNT

It is astonishingly hard keeping a newsroom afloat these days, and we need to raise $253,000 in online donations quickly, by October 7.

The short of it: Last year, we had to cut $1 million from our budget so we could have any chance of breaking even by the time our fiscal year ended in June. And despite a huge rally from so many of you leading up to the deadline, we still came up a bit short on the whole. We can’t let that happen again. We have no wiggle room to begin with, and now we have a hole to dig out of.

Readers also told us to just give it to you straight when we need to ask for your support, and seeing how matter-of-factly explaining our inner workings, our challenges and finances, can bring more of you in has been a real silver lining. So our online membership lead, Brian, lays it all out for you in his personal, insider account (that literally puts his skin in the game!) of how urgent things are right now.

The upshot: Being able to rally $253,000 in donations over these next few weeks is vitally important simply because it is the number that keeps us right on track, helping make sure we don't end up with a bigger gap than can be filled again, helping us avoid any significant (and knowable) cash-flow crunches for now. We used to be more nonchalant about coming up short this time of year, thinking we can make it by the time June rolls around. Not anymore.

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