They don't look down on community organizers, they look down on Barack Obama.

The only calculation here was to try to turn a key aspect of his biography, that appears by all reasonable estimates to be unassailable, and diminish it. They really don't give a shit about anything else.

Is there a link to this?

Here is the original source of the "Foreign Affairs Weekly" parody from the weekend:

http://www.panopticist.com/2008/09/sarah_palin_makes_the_cover_of_foreign_affairs.php

"But look, let's call a spade a spade"

I sincerely hope the pun was unintentional?

The prog mendacity factory is at it again. Some time ago, I worked as a volunteer community organizer (for 4 years or so) and got to know plenty of professional organizers, although I wasn’t the son of any of them. In hindsight, I find them—and myself at the time—to have been very problematic folks, characterized by both stunning naiveté as well as corrosive cynicism; by radical far-left political, social, and cultural views largely disconnected from reality; by a hypocritical eagerness to make shameful compromises with corrupt municipal and county governments (since they were Democrat controlled), and even with a corporation at one point; by a complete lack of humor and overall lack of perspective, especially about ourselves; by a bizarre, selective, secularist puritanism that was unbearable even at the time; various degrees of condescension and occasionally half-hidden contempt for the "little people" being helped by us cognoscenti; by seething, disproportionate hatred for all opponents; and, last but not least, by ineffectiveness. Most of us probably needed a good shrink. Try getting involved in community organizing and see if I'm wrong. I am not.

There are far better ways to help people and make this brutal, broken world a better place than by becoming an ACORN nut or an IAF wackjob. Ultimately, the problem is that everyone thinks about changing the world, but no one ever thinks about changing him/herself.

Please pardon the disillusion that comes from experience.

Yes, they are trying to play the race card. It is in our best interests, however, to simply ignore it. Remember that after Clinton was accused of playing the race card, she started beating Obama by double digits in mostly-white places.

Jackie Robinson rules, unfortunately.

It's fairly clear what they're trying to evoke....Obama organized poor black people.

I second the call for links. And I'm glad I'm not the only one who double-taked at "call a spade a spade," even though the phrase's origins have nothing to with the racial slur.

When Giuliani sneered about community organizers on the "South side" of Chicago, it's pretty clear what he's saying: Barack Obama spent his time rabble-rousing among black people.

I suspect they are more trying to suggest that Obama's "community organizing" was more "typical" back-scratching, kick-backing, ballot-box-stuffing Chicago-style politics. Not that that's a legitimate association, just saying how it came across to me.

Palin the Fascist inspired me to give my first campaign donation. To Obama.
Looks like the GOP strategy from here to November is nothing but "hate Obama".

Here is great moment from "community organizwrs" that I am sure progressives are proud to support.

More than 250 protesters attended two demonstrations Saturday night and Sunday morning in front of the residence where three members of the men’s lacrosse team allegedly raped a local woman.

"Comminity organizer" is Republican for "NIGGER!!!"

I sympathize with Anon1:32's bad experience... I generally advised all of my friends who were considering working for some kind of community non-profit after grad school to STAY AWAY. You will generally be treated like crap for low wages.

That said, the realities of getting government to work for a neighborhood involves organizing citizens to turn them into a political force so that politicians pay attention to their needs. If you aren't cajoling and threatening politicians to work for you, somebody else will.

This is one of the most infuriating things I’ve heard in a while to come from the Republicans. They are mocking the role of dedicating oneself to active civic engagement.

It makes me think back to Wesley Clark-gate. The controversy of that moment was the very reasonable statement that bravery as a POW does not carry some sort of intrinsic qualification for running the country. But the actual discussion which led to that moment was Clark’s claim that McCain’s position in the military did not prepare him to be Commander-in-Chief, which is something actually worth having a substantive debate on. I don’t know enough about the military to say whether or not I agree with that, but essentially it’s a worthwhile debate about the extent to which someone’s past duties have prepared them for future responsibilities.

If the Republicans had chosen this angle: wanting to highlight Obama’s lack of experience by arguing that experience as a community organizer does not qualify one to perform the various duties required of the President, then that would be fine. I wouldn’t agree with that perspective, but it would certainly be well within the boundaries of reasonable debate.

But that’s not what the Republicans are doing; they are degrading the very merit of his work. There are thousands of community organizers across this country who work incredibly long and difficult hours getting paid far less than they could make in another job for which they would easily qualify and I can guarantee that not a one of them feels like they lack for tangible responsibilities. When you bring up service in the military you have to tip toe around and having a reasonable debate about the extent to which military service qualifies you to perform other, very different, jobs, you’re accused of insulting our armed forces. By contrast the Republicans are being allowed to shit all over a different kind of public service.

Serving as a community organizer is one of the least “elitist” things one can do. Its difficult and its not glamorous, but the Republicans will continue to insult and degrade those who do it and then turn around and tell everyone that progressives are elitist.

True enough. But there's a huge opening here I think. An ad which links Obama's work to all the other forms of community work. A (mostly) positive ad which reminds us that it's good to work in our communities and so on and that despite our different backgrounds we have a common concern. And oh, by the way, those nasty Republicans think it all s*cks.

Anonymous: Well, we've come full circle. The Right now wants people to keep their hands off their community, because government knows best.

Anon1:42 was me, by the way.

part of the mockery of "community organizers" falls into the same category at criticism of Obama's popularity: there is genuine suspicion and resentment towards people getting involved in politics who don't "deserve" to. When certain people take matters into their own hands to lobby the government themselves (instead of paying a high-priced professional) or volunteer and get involved and bring people to the polls to support a candidate, there's a sense that they're "reaching above their station." Thus, such activity is to be mocked and discouraged. Communities are thought to be best dealt with when they are divided and cannot use their power to extract demands from the politicians who work for them.

One might call such an attitude... elitist.

Dear Anonymous:

I will not pardon your disillusion.

Don't get me wrong -- your insights are keen: You saw that a bunch of community organizers had problems, that the campaigns were unpure, and in many cases ineffective. But the lesson you drew is just too pat: Don't change the world, change yourself!

"New age" was big in the 1980s, man. Yes, it's a hard world and people trying to change it can be fools, but is the lesson really to NOT try to work with others to produce change?

This is what the 60s radicals meant by "Don't trust anyone over 30." It's too easy to let one's disappointed high hopes lead to cynicism. A better lesson is to temper that idealism with some realism, and you can end up a pragmatist.

Incidentally, I think that's what Obama did...

"But look, let's call a spade a spade"

You might want to update your equivalency metaphors to something with a lil' less historical baggage.

And David Ehrenstein may have left off a prefix: Uppity.

Just saying...

Paul L.: So, on the one hand you've got the entire civil rights movement, and on the other hand you've got a single false rape accusation. How will we decide whether organizing is helpful or harmful?

(Leaving aside the detail that the great majority of community organizing is not street protests.)

When Giuliani sneered about community organizers on the "South side" of Chicago, it's pretty clear what he's saying: Barack Obama spent his time rabble-rousing among black people.

I agree this is partially true -- but most of the laughter was elicited by the way he said "community organizer." Part of it is that the awkward locution suggests a kind of liberal approach to sociology-driven engagement with communities (rather than, say through the church). It smacked more of anti-elitism to me -- the suggestion that community organizing is an intellectual, effete way to get involved. Of course, this is absurd on the merits of doing it on the South Side of Chicago. In other words, the racism element (Black rabble rouser) conflicts with the bubba element (tea-sipping Harvard grad). Not that such conflicts pose any problem for a Republican platform.

"In hindsight, I find them—and myself at the time—to have been very problematic folks, characterized by both stunning naiveté as well as corrosive cynicism"

Yup, you found that community organizing was a thankless task, ill-paid and powerless (hence the sense of ineffectiveness) and because of the frustrations inherent in it, attracted people with usual types of personality and agenda. I'm not surprised: that was my own experience as a student union leader in the UK.

However, let's look at how Obama responded to said difficulties as an organizer: instead of jettisoning the idea of public service and going to Wall Street, he tooled himself up (Harvard Law Degree, running for State Senate) to be in a position to implement change. The difference is, that he still remembered the value of organizing people around a common theme and set of goals.

The Giuliani and Ms Alaska deriding community organizers remind me of what John Stewart said about what Republicans think about the people in America:
"Republicans love America - They just hate half of the people in it."

Hopefully in November they will have their asses handed to them because of that community organizing they like to mock. Hopefully.

Paul L.'s stock in trade is relating everything to Duke lacrosse. It's sort of a party trick. Ken Jennings does a version of it in Mental Floss , except that the two things he links changes, and for Paul L., only one thing changes. And if Ken Jennings got to play Paul on jeopardy he'd be as rich as Cindy McCain. That's also different.

This is so tired and stupid. Barack Obama constantly refers to himself as having organized on the "South Side" of Chicago.

To quote him on this, though, is somehow racist? You folks rightly complain, to my mind, that the McCain camp goes too often to the "he was tortured!" argument.

But it is similarly absurd, dishonest, and frankly immoral to claim that every attack on St. Barry is really meant to highlight his race.

Community organizers...
1. got women the vote
2. got Jim Crow over-turned & lead to the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act
3. got the minimum wage & a host of child labor laws
4. got the Brady Bill passed
5. saved millions from drunk drivers w/ little know organization call MADD
6. walk thousands of miles each year in the fight against breast cancer, autism, etc.

Weren't our founding fathers community organizers?
Isn't the PTA a community organization?

I suspect they are more trying to suggest that Obama's "community organizing" was more "typical" back-scratching, kick-backing, ballot-box-stuffing Chicago-style politics. Not that that's a legitimate association, just saying how it came across to me.

That's because you'd rather not have to think about your party being racist to its core. Understandable. Not saying that you personally are racist, Kevin, but your party certainly is.

Yes, the party that named the first black woman secretary of state, succeeding the first black male secretary of state, both enormously qualified (and, it is turning out, the only competent foreign policy hands in the Administration), is a party racist to its core.

Thank goodness we have progressives to remind us that black republicans are traitors to their cause, to throw up scurrilous and indefensible attacks on the likes of Rice and Justice Thomas, and to remind us how blacks are really supposed to think, vote and behave.

Thank goodness we have such enlightened post racial thinking on your side of the aisle.

The party engages in tokenism, Bill. Just as it's going with Palin.

Very persuasive response, SarahMC. I'm sure it's consoling to your worldview.

That it insults and dismisses people of color who disagree with you is surely of no moment. You, after all, are a noble promoter of diversity, whereas they are confused collaborators with the enemy. If only they understood themselves as well as you understand them. If only you could have saved Colin Powell and Condi Rice from being victims of tokenism.

If only. But, I guess, SaraMC, there's only so much good a noble soul like you can do for the poor downtrodden in a single day.

In any event, I surely stand corrected.

True enough. But there's a huge opening here I think. An ad which links Obama's work to all the other forms of community work. A (mostly) positive ad which reminds us that it's good to work in our communities and so on and that despite our different backgrounds we have a common concern.

"I'm Barack Obama, and I approve this message.

While working on the South Side of Chicago, helping unemployed steel workers, I learned the importance of community in moving America forward. The mother volunteering at the local hospital. The college student delivering meals to seniors. The neighborhood organizations taking charge of their streets. All of us, working together, can overcome Washington politics and make America a better place. Because in the end, that is what this election is all about."

A commenter at Mudflats had the perfect slogan: "Jesus was a community organizer, and Pontius Pilate was a governor." (Hat tip to Humboldt Blue.)

Heh...

All this energy trying to make community organizing something it's not.

It is community organizing, and that's all.

Heh...

All this energy trying to make community organizing something it's not.

It is community organizing, and that's all.

Republicans sneer at and mock community organizing because they are afraid of what it can accomplish.

Community organizing brought about the women's liberation movement, the black civil rights movement, and the gay civil rights movement. The powers that be have a vested interest in keeping people from engaging in activism on behalf of themselves, especially the mega-rich white people who were on display at last night's convention.

One could ask them, if the government is better off teeny-tiny, who is supposed to get things done if not organizers in the community? But their own hypocricy has never stopped them from peddling bullshit like this before.

Sorry about my error, I am actually not normally Anonymous but rather Alinsky's Ghost. Let's try that again:

The prog mendacity factory is at it again. Some time ago, I worked as a volunteer community organizer (for 4 years or so) and got to know plenty of professional organizers, although I wasn’t the son of any of them. In hindsight, I find them—and myself at the time—to have been very problematic folks, characterized by both stunning naiveté as well as corrosive cynicism; by radical far-left political, social, and cultural views largely disconnected from reality; by a hypocritical eagerness to make shameful compromises with corrupt municipal and county governments (since they were Democrat controlled), and even with a corporation at one point; by a complete lack of humor and overall lack of perspective, especially about ourselves; by a bizarre, selective, secularist puritanism that was unbearable even at the time; various degrees of condescension and occasionally half-hidden contempt for the "little people" being helped by us cognoscenti; by seething, disproportionate hatred for all opponents; and, last but not least, by ineffectiveness. Most of us probably needed a good shrink. Try getting involved in community organizing and see if I'm wrong. I am not.

There are far better ways to help people and make this brutal, broken world a better place than by becoming an ACORN nut or an IAF wackjob. Ultimately, the problem is that everyone thinks about changing the world, but no one ever thinks about changing him/herself.

Please pardon the disillusion that comes from experience.

"

Heh...

All this energy trying to make community organizing something it's not.

It is community organizing, and that's all.
"

Fine and being the mayor of a town smaller than a public housing project in New York and the governor of a state smaller than a mid-sized city is nothing more than that.

Barack Obama is not running on his community organizing experience alone. Palin, however, is trying to degrade that service to mask her own incredible inexperience. If Palin wants to argue that she's more experienced than she's being given credit for than thats perfectly acceptable, but she's degrading what is undeniably a public service in order to do so. Thats insulting and reprehensible.

Matt, if I were a corrupt governor using my office to reward my personal friends and take revenge on my family's enemies, I, too, would be pissed off at the "community organizers" who started agitating the government to make sure that their own needs were served, as well... because I'd view community organizers as a thorn in my side for causing the voters to start bothering me and getting in the way of my personal agenda. That's why Palin and Giuliani lashed out at that part of Obama's background.

Matt,

Did you see your candidate's insulting and reprehensible interview wherein he decided that the crucial comparison was between his experience "running his campaign" (I thought David Axelrod did that, actually) and Gov. Palin's time as mayor?

Now, Barry is a smart guy. So why is it that in his comparison he pretends Gov. Palin has never stopped being Mayor Palin? Is it that he doesn't realize it? Or is it that he's smart enough to realize that his campaign's staff and budget, by his own description his strongest executive experience, are simply dwarfed in size by the staff and budget of poor tiny Alaska. So he disingenuously pretends that 24 months of campaigning is great, while 20 months of governing a state is somehow less important than her time as a small town mayor. Brilliant!

It was to that petty and absurd comparison that Gov. Palin was replying by comparing community organizing and being a small town mayor, just to say that even the lesser experience of Gov. Palin's life is not fit for the mockery to which Obama has tried to subject it.

But, as usual, you folks will cry to the heavens that only Rovian Rethuglicans like distortions, and that St. Barry of the South Side has simply run a noble, honest, and forthright campaign based upon his own experience and Solomonic wisdom.

I will give you this, the histrionics and self-righteousness make for an endlessly amusing demonstration of that complete lack of self-awareness that inevitably collapses into self-parody.

I would love to see the Obama campaign put together an ad with several "real" Americans--moms, dads, oldsters, kids--talking about how community organizers helped them, and saying, "Shame on you, Gov Palin, for mocking what you don't understand." Even better if the people in the ad are Alaskans.

I see the fever swamps have made their way to the Propoect.

Palin did not attack anybody, she responded to Barack Obamas attck on small town Mayors, in case you forgot.

The unscripted Obama likes to belittle small towns, gun and religion clingers and Palin called him on it.

In addtion, if you actually read Baracks book, he admits
he got nothing done and spent three years banging his head against the wall.

ACORN has issued the following statement on this issue:

ACORN (the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now) President Maude Hurd issued the following statement after presumptive Republican V.P nominee Sara Palin and former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani made disparaging remarks about community organizing at the Republican National Convention Wednesday night.

“ACORN members, leaders and staff are extremely disappointed that Republican leaders would make such condescending remarks on the great work community organizers accomplish in cities throughout this country.
The fact that they marginalize our success in empowering low- and moderate-income people to improve their communities further illustrates their lack of touch with ordinary people. Through community organizing, people are empowered to take action to solve their own problems, develop leadership skills and make decisions that improve their lives and their communities."

ACORN has been building organizations and developing leadership among
low- and moderate- income residents in neighborhoods throughout the United States for 38 years. During that time, ACORN chapters have worked individually and collectively to organize innovative grassroots campaigns on a number of critical issues. As the nation’s largest grassroots community organization with more than 400,000 member families, ACORN employs 400 organizers that carry a huge responsibility of helping disenfranchised people in their communities.

In the past 10 years, ACORN has helped more than 30 million American families through our various organizing campaigns: better schools, financial justice, living wages, community improvement, immigration, healthcare, predatory lending, voter engagement and utilities.

The total monetary value of recent victorious ACORN campaigns was quantified in a 2006 report entitled, “ACORN Wins”. Over the last decade, ACORN’s victories amount to $15 billion, an average of $1.5 billion per year going directly into low- and moderate-income communities to help strengthen working families. (For a copy go to http://www.acorn.org/fileadmin/Reports/ACORN_Wins_Report.pdf

Yes, the party that named the first black woman secretary of state, succeeding the first black male secretary of state, both enormously qualified (and, it is turning out, the only competent foreign policy hands in the Administration), is a party racist to its core.

And how many people of color have they elected to high office, Bill? I'll give you time to look it up.

They can appoint their occasional tokens. For every qualified minority they appoint (Powell), they appoint the least qualified they can find (Thomas). But when push comes to shove, and they need votes, they go right back to the Southern Strategy.

This is the part where you're supposed to tell me that the Republicans are the real reformers because they passed the Civil Rights act. Then someone will have to dig up the famous quote from Newt Gingrich giving all of the credit for that to liberal Democrats. Don't bother. It's played out. No one here is as stupid as you think they are (except probably anonymous, who I'll admit, is pretty fucking stupid).

Palin did not attack anybody, she responded to Barack Obamas attck on small town Mayors, in case you forgot.

Perhaps you can post a link to this attack. But I'll bet you can't. Because, as previously mentioned, you're pretty fucking stupid.

Great observation from a commenter at the Alaska blog Mudflats http://mudflats.wordpress.com/

Jesus was a Community Organizer and Pontias Pilate was a Governor

Community organizers...
1. got women the vote
2. got Jim Crow over-turned & lead to the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act
3. got the minimum wage & a host of child labor laws
4. got the Brady Bill passed
5. saved millions from drunk drivers w/ little know organization call MADD
6. walk thousands of miles each year in the fight against breast cancer, autism, etc.

Well, the first four at least are enough to ensure undying hostility from Republicans... the last two involve mommies and raising money for research the government may not fund, so I guess they're okay.

Weren't our founding fathers community organizers?

Molly Ivins once pointed out that Republicans would have mostly been Tories during that period anyway, since they align themselves with hierarchical power structures.

Isn't the PTA a community organization?

They'll get back to you on that one, maybe...

Seitz,

Have you ever read any Thurgood Marshall opinions? I'd invite you to. Then I'd invite you to read some Thomas opinions. Then I'd invite you to comment intelligently upon them, and to explain your view that Thomas is not a very strong Justice, so long as we're comparing the party's commitment to putting capable minorities into prominent positions.

I don't know what you regard as "high office," but black candidates have won Republican nominations for U.S. Senator and for Governor in various states. Whether they won those elections is hardly a simple reflection on the GOP, no? It could be the condescending attitudes of "post-racial" progressives like yourself and SarahMC who have decided that Black Republican=Stupid Token who ruin it for them in the general.

I wish I had a dime for every ignorant and uninformed opinion rendered about Justice Thomas's tenure on the Court, for instance.

But surely you are correct about how good your party is for black people. I mean, the monolithically democratically governed cities of Washington, DC and Detroit are practically paradises of prosperity, good education, and post-racial harmony--beacons of the hopes that the Democratic party has to offer minorities.

You must lose all kinds of sleep congratulating yourself when your head hits the pillow at night for all the beneficence.

Mocking community organizers is this year's version of the Purple Band-Aid.

Black Republican=Stupid Token

Wow, I never said they were stupid. What a racist thing to say, Bill. Not surprised to hear that coming from your side, though. Sad, really.

Seitz,

Oh, so clever you are!

I hope that some day you grow up enough to realize what a disgusting business it is to go about willy nilly accusing people of racism, how it debases discourse and cheapens a topic of profound importance.

I shall not hold my breath, however.

Why are you people pretending to be stupid?

You *know* what is happening here. Obama is being ridiculed for his ridiculous claim that experience as a community organizer significantly adds to his credentials for the Presidency. And with the obvious implication that his need to point to such a modest occupation illustrates his lack of substantial experience.

This is all very simple and obvious.

One measure of its obviousness is that Obama's apologists have instinctively fallen back to their usual old trope of making false accusations of racism agaisnt people who point it out.

It's not just about the South Side...'Bout time they started talking about the Chicago Machine and how BO first ran for office and is a Daley man

aw, is that ridiculous? I think it-- it is a sign that Obama has a much clearer understand of the problems of "real people" than McCain ever has and can ever hope to-- McCain has never worked with or dealt with the problems of real citizens. Obama has. That, in part, makes him a lot more qualified to address the concerns voters have when it comes to bread and butter issues. It's certainly a justifiable position-- moreso than claiming that Palin has foreign policy experience because Alaska is close to Russia.

oh waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa, let's do call a spade a spade......barack hussein obama is a dirty marxist pig.

I am just stunned at the lack of political instincts, not just in the Obama campaign, but among the people commenting in this thread.

The term "community organization" covers virtually every non-governmental, non-business group in America. It includes the Kiwanis, the Rotarians, the V.F.W., the churches, the Scouts, the P.T.A., the volunteers who clean up the parks, you name it.

Republicans have spent decades promoting the substitution of government services with those provided by voluntary associations. On Wednesday night, they took a big, fat dump on the whole idea, and they said that the only community organization that counts is City Hall.

There are MILLIONS of "community organizers" in this country. It's not just leftwing groups on the South Side of Chicago, or environmental groups in Oregon. It's every voluntary association.

How brain dead can you people be? Talk about a missed political opportunity. Don't you get it? The Republican Party has just endorsed government as the only solution and has told anyone who is in a non-government group that they're a worthless piece of shit.

Holy Christ, is every single Obama supporter and campaign operative too stupid to see that?

Yes, the party that named the first black woman secretary of state, succeeding the first black male secretary of state, both enormously qualified (and, it is turning out, the only competent foreign policy hands in the Administration), is a party racist to its core.

Condoleezza Rice may be enormously qualified on paper, but when we had the crisis in Georgia, she was completely useless. And the best part of that was her specialty was the Soviet Union. She's written books on Russia. Her PhD dissertation was on Czechoslovakia. She's been touted for years as an expert on Russia and Eastern Europe. She's been waiting her entire professional life to go toe-to-toe with the Russkies.

And yet when there was an actual CRISIS in Eastern Europe, she was completely and utterly useless.

Do you see why maybe we're a little skeptical of people who are hugely qualified on paper and yet prove to be completely useless when it comes to taking action?

I think part of the ridicule factor comes from how nebulous the term is. I mean anyone can put community organizer down as a job no matter how much or how little community organizing they do. This is particularly true in politics because so many politicians get sweetheart non-jobs to "consult" or to go to law firms where their only job is to get legislative continuances. Between that and what seems to be a pretty thin resume as an academic, it makes people wonder of he ever had a "real" job.

Jesus was a community organizer.
Pontius Pilate was a Governor.

(Just a reminder from a non-chrisitan friend)

if i'm not mistaken, didn't palin get her political start in the PTA?

pot, kettle much?

Community organizing is the root of change. This is why the republicans are mocking Obama and those who get involved. Do you want 4 more years of an administration who makes decisions behind closed doors and tells us that they don't need anything from us except blind faith? Obama asks us to get involved and take responsibility in our homes, our communities and our nation. Thats change.

Ezra Klein: "A community organizer can be a PTA member or a Christian Coalition lieutenant... Obama organized poor black people. Helped channel their anger and grievances and anxieties..."

Can you elaborate on that point? Yes, a community organizer can be any number of things as you say. In this particular case, what did Obama do to "organize" and "channel," specifically? What was the accomplishment of his tenure after all of this listening? Do you have any examples at all or something that can be independently validated beyond what his campaign states above the most generic of terms, if his campaign has elucidated anything specifically at all?

It's not really enough to go around listening to people if that's all one does. What neighborhood need was fulfilled? What charitable work, if it can defined as charity, was performed and who provided the funding? Was the assistance done on an individual basis or were only group needs addressed? Which groups and what was their grievance? Which detached government bureaucrats were irresponsible and how did he challenge them?

A listening tour or the nebulous term "community organizer" means squat unless context to the effort is defined. It's incumbent on the organizer who is aiming for higher office, and in this case upon Obama specifically, to shine some light on the specifics of his organizing, otherwise, "it's just words."

Jesus was a community organizer.
Pontius Pilate was a Governor.
So what do you call the guy who was leading the mob screaming "Crucify him"?
Other great moments in community organizing.
The Duke Lacrosse potbangers carrying signs saying "Castrate".
Al Sharpton - Tawana Brawley/Freddie's Fashion Mart
the Jena 6 for sucker-punching an beating a white cracker.

this is so ridiculous and a disservice to the true racism that exists in this country! Since when is community organizing limited to helping poor, black people?

There is more than enough in THEIR ATROCIOUS POLICIES to go after the Republicans. But that's not quite as sexy as saying "racist!" This way you get mentioned in the NYTimes.

Clinton didn't use the race card either - a reported baited Bill with "Jesse Jackson did well here in 1988, how does that compare" and Bill responded with "You are baiting me. But yes Jesse did well here." This is like the bs that said Bill's use of the phrase "fairy tale" was racist.

They are bashing him for this because he has used it as a centerpiece of his political awakening while his campaign (always careful to distinguish his campaign and their dirty remarks from his own "above-the-fray" comments) bashed her experience as a mayor.

The Dems need to toughen up a bit. Too bad they werent' as empathetic when media was comparing HRC and Fatal Attraction or David Alexrod blamed her for Benazir Bhutto's death.

Let's focus on the meat of the Obama/Biden tiket and get them elected with truth and dignity not this ludicrous name-calilng and victim-y retorts. We really don't need to sink to that level do we? I thought that Obama was calling all of us to take the higher ground.

This is all poltiical theatre and I for one am no longer fooled.

But WHAT DID HE DO as a "community organizer"?

Face it, this is just B.S. resume filler. And this is the best he's got?!

Ezra, you are a despicable racist! You seem to be the only person to race in this whole community organizing rouse. Disgusting racists such as yourself make me sick!

http://www.tnr.com/politics/story.html?id=2e0a7836-b897-4155-864c-25e791ff0f50

this is kind of interesting.

Jesus was a community organizer.
Pontius Pilate was a Governor.

So then why does the Obamassiah suddenly want to become Emperor Barry? And which Caesar would he emulate? Augustus? That's a laugh. Marcus Aurelius. Even bigger laugh. Diocletian? He could learn cruelty, but let’s not overdo things. Maybe someone like Claudius. Hmm, could be. Regardless of his exemplar, just think how many holy men and women an emperor can crucify, throw to the lions, or throw under a bus!

Paul L's list of examples of mob action really just provide examples of how easily people can fall for lies. This is precisely what the republicans were counting on at the RNC--that because they say something, the public will believe it. So setting the goals low and depending on the lip-stick coated put bull to rouse the rabble is quite Rovian in its tactics. Just don't be an unthinking member of a mob, educate yourself and do some independent thinking. Stop the RNC mob anxiety crap.

The thing most "politicians" can never remember when they talk about our history of this country is that we were Community Organizers. We were the ones that rebelled against a government and held them accountable and when they would not account we fought, and WON! We as a people. But because it is THEIR government that suits them being an organizer is unpatriotic and in some ways dare I say "terroristic". I being an organizer in the Labor Movement, take extreme offense to this and we all should. They can wave all the flags they want but until they go out and talk to the PEOPLE and listen to the PEOPLE and try to help our country the way true citizens are suppose to they will NEVER BE FOR THE PEOPLE and in true organizing spirit I will be doing all I can to start from the bottom.

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