One of the things that drew me to One of the things that drew me to The American Prospect a year and a half ago (besides trying to beat Obama here from Chicago) was the Prospect's focus on the substance of policy debates, and the people and institutions that shape them. Taking over as web editor at the start of campaign season threw this into stark relief.
For me, the longest night of the election was Friday, August 22. When the announcement came at 2:00 a.m. that Joe Biden had been selected as Obama's running mate, I didn't have to look deep into our archives for Biden-related stories. Our staff writer, Dana Goldstein, had spent several weeks in December and January on the trail, and filed a piece on Biden shortly before New Year's. At the time he was a long-shot for the nomination, but his campaign had caught her eye, and she thought he -- and his record -- deserved a closer look. That piece she wrote in January, "The Appeal of Joe Biden" was as relevant as ever that August night. What drew Dana to Biden was his policy, not his prospects -- his support for mental health care legislation, his championing of the Violence Against Women Act, and his familiarity with foreign policy.
The Prospect has a well-deserved reputation for nurturing the brightest of young progressive writers like Dana Goldstein, Ezra Klein and Matt Yglesias -- as well for as featuring well-known journalists and experts to provide the nuanced analysis and coverage you've come to expect.
I'm writing this to encourage you to support the work we do here at The American Prospect with a generous donation. The Prospect is a non-profit -- we rely on the support of our readers and like-minded foundations to stay in business. This post kicks off a two-week fundraising drive here at TAP Online. We've got an exciting year ahead of us. The Prospect has three fantastic new writing fellows, we've nearly doubled the number of stories we publish each day at prospect.org, and we're looking forward to adding new features like video to the site in the coming months. All of this is possible because of the support of readers like you. As you're making your end of the year donations, I hope you'll consider giving generously to The American Prospect.
Please click here to make a tax-deductible donation to the Prospect. Thanks.
--Phoebe Connelly, Web Editor
