June 11, 2012

Quiz: Log-ins and Messina

Can you tell the difference between ’70s hits by soft rocker Jim Messina and emails sent by Obama campaign manager Jim Messina?

Jim Messina, ready to rock (left); the other Jim Messina, ready to Barack (right)<a href="http://www.jimmessina.com/gallery2.html">JimMessina.com</a> ; <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/whitehouse/3599213664/">Pete Souza</a>/The White House

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There are two Jim Messinas. One is a former member of Buffalo Springfield, Poco, and the ’70s soft-rock duo Loggins and Messina. (Yes, that’s Loggins as in Kenny). The other is Barack Obama’s 2012 campaign manager, a hard-nosed operator who gets nostalgic about “how bad a campaign office smells at midnight.” The similarities pretty much end with their names.

However, when it comes to their opening lines, it can be hard to tell the two Jim Messinas apart. 

Here’s the challenge: Half of the titles in this quiz are actual subject lines of emails sent by Jim Messina (the campaign manager one) to Obama supporters. The other half are titles of songs by Loggins and Messina. Can you tell which are which?

 

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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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