Every Saturday, we open the Wide World of News mailbag and answer the most frequently asked questions from the WWoN community.
Let’s go!!!
Q. Why do you typically start each edition of the newsletter by making a friendly appeal for folks to become voluntary paid subscribers or contributors?
A. When George W. Bush was in politics, he would share the story of a citizen who told him after the House election that Bush lost that he hadn’t voted for the former Texas governor. Bush asked him why and the fella said, “You never asked me to vote for you.”
Bush took from that that it was important to ask! So he would say at rallies during his later races, “I’m asking you to vote for me.”
Over the life of WWoN, I’ve learned conclusively that when I begin the newsletter with an appeal for financial support from generous readers, I get financial support. If I don’t ask (or, even, if I ask down further in the body of the newsletter as opposed to up top), I typically get no support or very little.
As healthy as it is to wake up in the morning and write this newsletter seven days a week, surprisingly to some I don’t write it for my health. I write it for the cash money.
So, I’m asking for the vote. I mean the money.
To become a voluntary paid subscriber, click here:
If you wish to contribute the amount of your choice (any and all amounts are welcome!) to the cause, you have these options:
* Buy me a cocktail (at Portland, Maine prices….), tax and server tip included, by clicking here.
* Buy me a cup of coffee (or a week’s worth) by clicking here.
* Check. Send a simple email to markhalperintalk@gmail.com and ask where you can send a check.
• PayPal. markhalperinnyc@gmail.com
• Venmo. Mark-Halperin-4 (telephone number ends in x3226)
• Zelle. markhalperinnyc@gmail.com
To buy one or more gift subscriptions for your colleagues or loved ones:
****
Q. Why would anyone pay for Wide World of News when they can read the exact same version of the newsletter, every day, for free and there are, as of now, no extra benefits whatsoever that come with paying?
A. Because many of my readers are kind and generous.
****
Q. What time do you start writing World Wide of News each day? Do you write a lot of it the night before?
A. My start time varies, depending on what else I have going on. It doesn’t take as long as you think, as I’ve been writing morning tip sheets for decades and know a trick or two about how to churn them out.
I’ve written this newsletter by myself every day of every week, month, and year, with no missed days, since November 12, 2019. In that entire time, I’ve written a part of WWoN the day or night before fewer than a dozen times. One key to this newsletter is its timeliness and I have to survey the news landscape in the dawn’s early light to know what to write. So, with extremely rare exceptions, it is done from scratch in the mornings.
****
Q. Are your readers more Blue or more Red?
A. I don’t have stats on the total overall makeup, but I am proud to say that my audience definitely spans from Deep State bureaucrats in sandals and beads to full-on MAGA loyalists. Some days, I clearly piss off one side or the other – and some days both! I also have a lot of readers who share my “country over tribe” orientation towards the news and the polity.
****
Q. Are the Ron Klain “memos” real?
A. They are “real” in the sense that they reflect my reporting about what is going on within the White House and the Democratic Party; they are “not real” in the sense that I write them and Ron Klain does not. (At least that is true most weeks.)
****
Q. Does the Gang of 500 exist and do its members have brunch on Sunday’s at Lauriol Plaza in DC?
A. The Gang of 500 is as real as the bipartisan establishment conspiracy to make sure Donald Trump does not return to the White House in 2025. The only way to know if those brunches are real is to show up one weekend and see for yourself. Pro tips: Come hungry and order the queso.
****
Q. Who is in the army of researchers, graphic designers, reporters, and writers that works on the newsletter each day with you?
A. No one. I do every bit of Wide World of News by my lonesome. Proof: All the typos!
****
Q. Why do you sometimes reproduce the entirety of Heather Cox Richardson’s Substack within Wide World of News?
A. You mean like this?
I do this sometimes to point out to you that one of the most successful and esteemed players in the “daily” newsletter dodge on some occasions decides to take a day off. I have huge respect for her accomplishments and readership. And I envy her capacity to do what she does, as often as she does it.
****
Q. Why don’t you take some time off, like maybe in August?
A. As the bard once sang:
If you're goin' through hell keep on going
Don't slow down if you're scared don't show it
You might get out before the devil even knows you're there
Yeah, if you're goin' through hell keep on movin'
Face that fire, walk right through it
You might get out before the devil even knows you're there
So I will leave it up to all y’all.
If you want me to take some time off before Labor Day, please become a paying subscriber or paying contributor, or purchase a gift subscription for someone else.
If you DO NOT want me to take time off before Labor Day, please become a paying subscriber or paying contributor, or purchase a gift subscription for someone else.
And vote here:
****
ESSENTIAL READING
* The Washington Post advances the storyline that has been percolating all week – the panic and resignation in Republican circles that the party’s weak-to-horrible Senate nominees are on track to keep Charles “Chuck” Schumer in the Majority Leader gig.
Lots of great blind quotes in this one, lots of blaming of Rick Scott, and/but not nearly enough examples of how purely bad these candidates are. The ham-handed efforts of the NRSC to rally the campaigns to paint a picture of one big, happy family will fool none of the people, none of the time.
* The New York Times looks at the latest stop on the Ron DeSantis national tour on behalf of MAGA candidates (if it’s Friday, its Western Pennsylvania for Mr. Mastriano), and includes this:
In Pittsburgh, Mr. DeSantis began his speech with a personal slide show that was typical of how a candidate might be introduced at a political convention, including a picture of him as a toddler in a Pittsburgh Steelers hat.
The governor, who has a reputation as a sometimes wooden speaker, stood throughout his address behind a rostrum as if giving a lecture, holding on to its edges with his hands.
But the crowd reacted enthusiastically, frequently jumping to its feet as he spoke of how under his watch, Florida had banned what he called “ballot harvesting,” or the practice of voters depositing ballots for other people, as well as prohibited schools from enacting mask mandates during the pandemic.
* The Associated Press tracks Mike Pence on his two-day Iowa visit, where the former Veep reminds that he is a critic of the 1/6 committee and sympathizes with the public appetite for “unprecedented transparency” around the Mar-a-Lago search.
* Apparently many California voters do not share Ron Klain’s enthusiasm for all of the Biden-Harris-Klain-Pelosi-Schumer accomplishments, per the Politico write-up of a fresh survey:
A new Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies poll of California voters underscored the peril for Biden and potential for Newsom. A resounding 61 percent of voters surveyed online Aug. 9-15 said Biden should not run in 2024, including about half of Democratic voters and most independents.
* The Wall Street Journal snags an interview with FBI Director Christopher Wray, in which he absolutely refuses to dish on the Trump probe, but (1) you will learn about the Bureau Topper’s state of mind here; and, (2) nothing like keeping track of all beat sweeteners.
* Progressive warriors Representative Pramila Jayapal and Leah Greenberg smartly take to the op-ed page of the Wall Street Journal for a cleverly argued victory lap.
* Travelers in the know who love to eat will relish this Washington Post piece on how the skilled restauranteur Rick Bayless churns out actual quality food at Chicago O’Hare International Airport’s Tortas Frontera.
****
PROOF THAT THE NEW YORK TIMES HAS NOT GONE FULLY POPULIST OR SHED ITS ELITE ORIENTATION QUITE YET
