Does America Really Want the Most Qualified Candidate Ever?

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Here is President Obama last night, after singing the praises of Hillary Clinton:

That’s the Hillary I know. That’s the Hillary I’ve come to admire. And that’s why I can say with confidence there has never been a man or a woman more qualified than Hillary Clinton to serve as President of the United States of America.

I wasn’t too thrilled with this bit of Obama’s speech. Not because I want to get into an argument with conservatives about just how qualified Hillary really is, but because it seemed wrong for the moment. The conventional wisdom says that Americans are angry and want an outsider, somebody who will shake things up. Being the most qualified person ever is exactly the opposite of that. If Americans really are angry with the status quo, this was precisely the wrong way to sell her.

A little later in the speech Obama used the hoary old “in the arena” passage of Teddy Roosevelt fame. But if he was going to use it at all, this is the place he should have done it. Hillary has been in the arena, fighting all her life, while Trump has spent his life on the sidelines, bickering away and inventing feuds with other B-list celebrities. Experience is what underlies this difference, but it’s a more positive way of making the point, and a more negative way of portraying Trump’s lack of experience.

Oh well.

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“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

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WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

Wow.

And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

About that: It’s unfathomably hard in the news business right now, and we came up about $28,000 short during our recent fall fundraising campaign. We simply have to make that up soon to avoid falling further behind than can be made up for, or needing to somehow trim $1 million from our budget, like happened last year.

If you can, please support the reporting you get from Mother Jones—that exists to make a difference, not a profit—with a donation of any amount today. We need more donations than normal to come in from this specific blurb to help close our funding gap before it gets any bigger.

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