October 13, 2008

McCain Campaign: We Meant We’d Unveil New Economic Plans Tuesday

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The McCain campaign is getting hammered all over the place for promising new economic plans over the weekend and then announcing they had nothing to announce today. The move sent a strong signal that McCain either didn’t appreciate the difficulties facing everyday folks, or didn’t have any solutions for them. It was doubly damaging because, as I note below, the Obama campaign let loose with a slew of economic proposals designed to help working Americans and small businesses.

Either the negative press surrounding this situation convinced the McCain campaign that it needed to do something, or it always intended to unroll a new economic platform Tuesday and did a terrible job of communicating it. Either way, they are now saying that McCain “never intended” to address the economy today, as previously understood, and will do so tomorrow.

I’m betting McCain’s economic policy team is working overtime tonight. Get me a series of economic policies that strike a populist tone while staying true to my fiscally conservative record, combine to articulate a clear vision for the country, and will turn around my failing campaign! You have ten hours!

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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.

payment methods

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