If I am looking at applications for President/VP and under experience I see one with Community Organization and one with Mayor, well, Mayor holds a bit more weight with me.
This quote brings up a point I've been mulling over since the snarkiness of the whole "community organizer" barbs became a part of this race:
Community Organizer vs Mayor of a village...why hasn't anyone brought up the fact that Barack was a community organizer nearly twenty years ago. The "weakness" on her resume is a mere eighteen months in the past. Barack has done a thing or two since his days in Chicago.
And by the by, I put "weakness" in quotation marks to denote verbal irony. Working in your community is a noble act.
Other famous community organizers: Martin Luther King, Ghandi, Mother Theresa, Nelson Mandela, Jesus Christ.
Obviously, Barack isn't in that league, but that list does shine a light on the kind of ridiculousness Guilliani and Palin were dealing in last night.
"In the depths of winter, I finally learned that there was in me an invincible summer." -- Albert Camus
"He who knows only his own side of the case, knows little of that." -- John Stuart Mill
Community Organizer vs Mayor of a village...why hasn't anyone brought up the fact that Barack was a community organizer nearly twenty years ago. The "weakness" on her resume is a mere eighteen months in the past. Barack has done a thing or two since his days in Chicago.
.
exactly ... this was one of his first jobs (before he even went to law school) and almost 10 years before he became a state legislator.
I don't want to be hostile. I don't want to be dismal. But I don't want to rot in an apathetic existance either.
You're telling me when she said that being mayor is like being a community organizer except with actual responsibilities, what she was really saying was that community organizing is really great but I don't think it compares to my executive experience as mayor?
that is exactly what I am saying. I just don't find my thought process to be that hard of a stretch. I think it would be difficult to find 10 people, let alone an entire room full of them that find community service to be laughable.
It is pretty easy though to take that quote that way which is why I think it deserves to be slammed. So I guess we don't buy each others story for a second.
my favorite quote was that Obama "has written 2 books but not one major law"
That was actually a good quote.
My whole life
was like a picture
of a sunny day
“We can complain because rose bushes have thorns, or rejoice because thorn bushes have roses.”
― Abraham Lincoln
I don't think they were laughing at community organizer.....I think they were laughing at the dems for putting a man in contention for president with this as his experience...betcha Hillary was laughing also
i personally believe that she was not making fun of community organizers but was saying how it is similar to being a mayor. peopel were making fum of her being a mayor of a small town but not the same for Obama.
When Giuliani says that 'Obama was a community organizer. A...what?' and the entire convention laughs, there is no amount of spin you can put on it to make it sound good. That is offensive and demeaning to hard-working Americans. That the Republicans would actually make fun of a relatively low-income occupation, especially one that involves sacrifice for the good of the community, is the ultimate low. They should be absolutely ashamed of themselves for it. It is disgusting, hateful, and just plain out ignorant. Make fun of him for his relative amount of inexperience (they'll seem like hypocrites for supporting Palin, but that's another debate), but don't make fun of all the hard-working community organizers across this country. I'm not even a community organizer and I'm beyond offended. How anyone can support this campaign is beyond my comprehension. They have absolutely not dignity left in them.
No one is making fun of Palin for being a small-town mayor, at least no one of good stature. They are criticizing her job as the mayor of Wasilla because that, along with being governor of Alaska for 18 months, is her only qualifications to be president of the United States. After basing your entire campaign on Obama's lack of experience, to turn around and support Sarah Palin is simply ridiculous and hypocritical. There is no justification, no matter how much spin you put on 'but she's made executive decisions!'. BTW, at least Obama didn't leave his community with a $22 million deficit after being a community organizer.
When Giuliani says that 'Obama was a community organizer. A...what?' and the entire convention laughs, there is no amount of spin you can put on it to make it sound good. That is offensive and demeaning to hard-working Americans. That the Republicans would actually make fun of a relatively low-income occupation, especially one that involves sacrifice for the good of the community, is the ultimate low. They should be absolutely ashamed of themselves for it. It is disgusting, hateful, and just plain out ignorant. Make fun of him for his relative amount of inexperience (they'll seem like hypocrites for supporting Palin, but that's another debate), but don't make fun of all the hard-working community organizers across this country. I'm not even a community organizer and I'm beyond offended. How anyone can support this campaign is beyond my comprehension. They have absolutely not dignity left in them.
No one is making fun of Palin for being a small-town mayor, at least no one of good stature. They are criticizing her job as the mayor of Wasilla because that, along with being governor of Alaska for 18 months, is her only qualifications to be president of the United States. After basing your entire campaign on Obama's lack of experience, to turn around and support Sarah Palin is simply ridiculous and hypocritical. There is no justification, no matter how much spin you put on 'but she's made executive decisions!'. BTW, at least Obama didn't leave his community with a $22 million deficit after being a community organizer.
you can say the same thing abotu Obama, he has been in teh senate how many years and he has been running for president for what teh past 2-3 years. being a governor has resposibilities that peopel in teh senate do not have. i am not foolish for saying that she has alot of experience but she does have some. no offence but obama has never had to deal with budgets so of course he didn't leave his community in any deficit.
People demand freedom of speech to make up for the freedom of thought which they avoid."
- Soren Aabye Kierkegaard (1813-1855)
If you haven't got anything nice to say about anybody, come sit next to me."
- Alice Roosevelt Longworth (1884-1980)
these people repeat it over and over again. its like couldnt their speechwriters come up with anything else?
After the hateful, repetitive speeches of last night, I don't think you have the right or credibility to claim that the Democrats need better speech writers. All the Republicans come up with last night were liberal jokes, out-of-touch-with-reality comments about the economy (Romney claiming the weak economy is because of a liberal government), and distorted facts about Obama.
The only promotion of McCain/Palin I heard was "maverick" (which he was 8 years ago, not anymore), POW (talk about not being able to come up with anything else), and that Palin has executive experience (yes, but no foreign policy experience or national experience - and McCain doesn't have executive experience - and Bush had executive experience and we see how great of a president that made him).
If I am looking at applications for President/VP and under experience I see one with Community Organization and one with Mayor, well, Mayor holds a bit more weight with me.
They weren't even community organizer & mayor at the same time. Let's go through their resume, and compare where they were at the same point in time:
'80s
Obama: community organizer
Palin: television sports reporter
Early '90s
Obama: Constitutional Law professor
Palin: Wasilla City Council
Late '90s
Obama: Illinois State Senator
Palin: Mayor of Wasilla
2004-2008
Obama: U.S. Senator
Palin: Governor of Alaska
They have a similar amount of experience, but I'd think Obama has a slight edge. I'm not too concerned with experience, it's simply completely, 100% hypocritical to attack Obama for being inexperienced but support Sarah Palin for V.P. There are no if, ands, or buts about it. It's ridiculous, hypocritical, and just plain ignorant. I don't care how much spin you put on "executive experience", Sarah Palin is, at most equal to Obama in experience and qualifications to be president. I don't care if she is the V.P., that does not provide lower standards for her to meet. The V.P. candidate & Presidential candidate are held to the same qualifications - because they're both running for president of the United States. By the standards that the Republican Party has made to be president, Sarah Palin is unqualified and not ready to lead this country. Those are the Republican Party's standards and words, not mine. They have 0 credibility left to their name. None. Zip.
No one is making fun of Obama for being a community organizer, at least no one of good stature. They are criticizing his job as a community organizer because that is his only qualification to be president of the United States. Just having fun
I think he was a maverick and they are holding on to the old days.
I'm wondering what qualifies someone to be able to use the "maverick" claim? Is it that, by McCain's own admission, he votes with Bush 90% of the time? How is that mavericky? That seems like voting with the party currently in power.
maybe I should start a new topic asking that question...
If I am looking at applications for President/VP and under experience I see one with Community Organization and one with Mayor, well, Mayor holds a bit more weight with me. Without being in either position, I would think a Mayor would be held more accountable with greater responsibilities than a community organizer would. When push comes to shove, a Mayor will be held primarily responsible. I am not sure it would go that way with a Community Organizer. I think that was supposed to be the point.
I think I'm the opposite. I would trust the community organiser more than a mayor because to my mind, a mayor is just another politician, often concerned with power, prestige and status. I would assume that a community organiser's heart however would be more in the right place, as in they are often doing a low-status, low paid job because they care about their community, because they want to make positive changes, and because they understand the problems within that community. A mayor may have more accountability but I don't know if I'd trust their heart. That's the difference to me.
"We have to change the concept of patriotism to one of “matriotism” — love of humanity that transcends war. A matriarch would never send her own children off to wars that kill other people’s children." Cindy Sheehan --- London, Brixton, 14 July 1993 London, Wembley, 1996 London, Wembley, 18 June 2007 London, O2, 18 August 2009 London, Hammersmith Apollo (Ed solo), 31 July 2012 Milton Keynes Bowl, 11 July 2014
London, Hammersmith Apollo (Ed solo), 06 June 2017
No one is making fun of Obama for being a community organizer, at least no one of good stature. They are criticizing his job as a community organizer because that is his only qualification to be president of the United States. Just having fun
I don't really see many people in the media or otherwise taking their jibes the way you are. I think you're trying to read far too much subtlety and hidden messages into something that is far more simple; a mean-spirited joke at the expense of community organziers.
I'll tell you what it is; they see community organizing as a frivolous profession, and at the risk of annoying everyone again, community organizers often deal in communities that tend to lean Democratic, so the Republican Powers that Be don't really know or care about what such a thing is. Drew was entirely right; you listen to these jokes, and there's no amount of spin anyone can use to make them turn into eloquent critiques of Obama's experience. Best to call them for what they are; mean-spirited jokes by people who were equally mean-spirited and ignorant.
Speaking of the Republican convention speakers, a clearly riled Obama said, "They haven't talked about the fact that I was a civil rights lawyer; they haven't talked about the fact that I taught constitutional law; they haven't talked about my work in the state legislature, in the United States Senate. They're talking about the three years of work that I did right out of college as if... I'm making the leap from two or three years out of college into the presidency."
Obama acknowledged that his campaign had focused attention on his experience as a community organizer. But he said, "I would argue that doing work in the community to try and create jobs, to bring people together, to rejuvenate communities that have fallen on hard times, to set up job-training programs in areas that have been hard hit when the steel plants closed, that that's relevant only in understanding where I'm coming from, who I believe in, who I'm fighting for and why I'm in this race.
"And the question I have for them is? Why would that kind of work be ridiculous? Who are they fighting for? Who are they advocating for?
"Maybe that's the problem," Obama concluded. "Maybe that's part of why they are out of touch and don't get it because they haven't spent much time working for those kind of folks."
Let's look at some the biggest community organizers.
Military recuriters based in communities, schools and colleges throughout the country to seek volunteers for service to their country.
Points of Lights Foundation a $11 billion charity foundation made up of community organizers' call for volunteer participation.
Walk-a-thons for breast cancer made up from community organizers' call for volunteer participation.
The Red Cross and organization that relies on community organizers' call for volunteer participation.
FEMA an government agency that relies on community organizers' call for volunteer participation.
Churches of all faith rely their members as community organizers' for volunteer participation in events.
Hell, the community organizers of both the DNC and RNC had to handle more responsibilty leading up to and including those event then she did in her whole tenure as mayor of Wasilla, AK.
A community organizer can, in particular events, have more influence than a mayor.
A community organizer can, in particular events, have an impact on a governor's decision.
A community organizer can make a national awareness impact on a particular event.
I guess she wouldn't know about these things living off of oil stipends.
SIN EATERS--We take the moral excrement we find in this equation and we bury it down deep inside of us so that the rest of our case can stay pure. That is the job. We are morally indefensible and absolutely necessary.
I don't really see many people in the media or otherwise taking their jibes the way you are. I think you're trying to read far too much subtlety and hidden messages into something that is far more simple; a mean-spirited joke at the expense of community organziers.
admittedly, neither do I. All I know is that when she said it, I got a very small chuckle out of it, not because of what I thought of Community Organizers, but because of post #40. I am not going to speak for anybody else. If someone wants to dive into my character and call me mean spirited and ignorant, I can live with it.
admittedly, neither do I. All I know is that when she said it, I got a very small chuckle out of it, not because of what I thought of Community Organizers, but because of post #40. I am not going to speak for anybody else. If someone wants to dive into my character and call me mean spirited and ignorant, I can live with it.
Cheers.
I'm not talking about you; I'm talking about the Republican Party establishment that scoffed when Giuliani said "out of college, he was a community organizer. A what?" and everyone laughed? I don't see any possible spin there. They think putting on a uniform and valiantly fighting for your country is necessary and valuable service (which it is), but they think it's bullshit when someone commits to a job that is centered around revitalizing and rebuilding broken communities.
I still think the Obama's campaign first response was still the best...
"Community organizing is what ordinary people do to combat out-of-touch politicans and their failed policies."
I'm not talking about you; I'm talking about the Republican Party establishment that scoffed when Giuliani said "out of college, he was a community organizer. A what?" and everyone laughed? I don't see any possible spin there. They think putting on a uniform and valiantly fighting for your country is necessary and valuable service (which it is), but they think it's bullshit when someone commits to a job that is centered around revitalizing and rebuilding broken communities.
I still think the Obama's campaign first response was still the best...
"Community organizing is what ordinary people do to combat out-of-touch politicans and their failed policies."
ok, sorry, we are changing quotes. I find Giuliani tough to take so yeah, I can absolutely see that side. In all, I just wish Palin and Obama would stop the shit talk (yes one seems to be doing it more than the other). I find both to be refreshing despite the fact I obviously am leaning a certain direction.
Please note that Palin has only been Governor of Alaska (a state with less than 700,000) since December of 2006.
I probably should have noted that. She's been in the Governor's seat half the time Obama has been in his senate seat. And, yet, Obama is the inexperienced one?
I love when Sarah Palin claimed that "Unlike Obama as a community organizer, I actually had responsibilities as mayor." That is the single most ridiculous, offensive thing I have ever heard at a National Convention. Nothing is worse than that. She just insulted a working-class occupation that sacrifices much for the good of the community. I'm not trying to degrade her as mayor, but she was over 7,000 people. I don't even think she was a full-time employee.
As I pointed out about, while Obama was a community organizer, she was a sporting news broadcaster on local television. While she was mayor, he was a state senator. If anything, I would give Obama the upper hand on those two occupations.
If the Obama camp was smart, they'd turn this into an ad immediately. Imaging a bunch of small-town community organizers, who for example, (making these up), worked with the churches in a small town to build an after school center for kids, stopped a local manufacturing plant from closing down; you know, any one of the thousands of good and important things community organizers commit to everyday.
Then juxtapose those stories of "ordinary, hard-working Americans" with Palin and Giuliani making jackasses out of themselves. If people had an accurate, well publicized understanding of what being a community organizer means, and therefore saw what the Republicans were mocking, it'd blow right up in their face.
i do not think people were making fun of her being mayor ... i think they just were wondering why being mayor of a 7K person town qualifies her to be a VP.
And the Republicans were wondering why being a "community organizer" qualifies Obama to be president. That's all.
They weren't putting down community organizers. They were putting down Obama.
(Partisan) people seem to be missing the distinction.
everybody wants the most they can possibly get
for the least they could possibly do
If the Obama camp was smart, they'd turn this into an ad immediately. Imaging a bunch of small-town community organizers, who for example, (making these up), worked with the churches in a small town to build an after school center for kids, stopped a local manufacturing plant from closing down; you know, any one of the thousands of good and important things community organizers commit to everyday.
The thing is, none of the above is a qualification for being president, which is how Obama is painting his time as a "community organizer."
It's nice. It's a good thing to do. But it is a far, far cry from leader of the free world. And no, you don't have the same accountability you do as an elected official, which is the point Palin was making.
If your attempts at "community organizing" fail -- as Obama's invariably did -- nobody gets to vote you out of office. They just say, "thanks for trying."
As I mentioned on another thread, Obama including "community organizer" on his imaginary resume to be president is like me applying for CEO of Microsoft and pointing out that I once spent a summer as a fry cook at Wendy's.
It was a good, real-world experience, but appropos of nothing when it comes to the job he's applying for now.
everybody wants the most they can possibly get
for the least they could possibly do
i personally believe that she was not making fun of community organizers but was saying how it is similar to being a mayor. peopel were making fum of her being a mayor of a small town but not the same for Obama.
Exactly. But that point is ignored and missed on this board.
The thing is, none of the above is a qualification for being president, which is how Obama is painting his time as a "community organizer."
It's nice. It's a good thing to do. But it is a far, far cry from leader of the free world. And no, you don't have the same accountability you do as an elected official, which is the point Palin was making.
If your attempts at "community organizing" fail -- as Obama's invariably did -- nobody gets to vote you out of office. They just say, "thanks for trying."
As I mentioned on another thread, Obama including "community organizer" on his imaginary resume to be president is like me applying for CEO of Microsoft and pointing out that I once spent a summer as a fry cook at Wendy's.
It was a good, real-world experience, but appropos of nothing when it comes to the job he's applying for now.
If working as a community organizer was the only thing Obama had done before embarking on this "improbable journey" towards the presidency, you may have a point. It isn't, and you don't.
"When all your friends and sedatives mean well but make it worse... better find yourself a place to level out."
Comments
This quote brings up a point I've been mulling over since the snarkiness of the whole "community organizer" barbs became a part of this race:
Community Organizer vs Mayor of a village...why hasn't anyone brought up the fact that Barack was a community organizer nearly twenty years ago. The "weakness" on her resume is a mere eighteen months in the past. Barack has done a thing or two since his days in Chicago.
And by the by, I put "weakness" in quotation marks to denote verbal irony. Working in your community is a noble act.
Other famous community organizers: Martin Luther King, Ghandi, Mother Theresa, Nelson Mandela, Jesus Christ.
Obviously, Barack isn't in that league, but that list does shine a light on the kind of ridiculousness Guilliani and Palin were dealing in last night.
"He who knows only his own side of the case, knows little of that." -- John Stuart Mill
"Mongo just a pawn in game of life." -- Mongo
Difference between being a community organizer and the son of a millworker is that being a community organizer is a job.
A community organizer works to help people after politicians leave them behind with their failed policies.
Like helping people after a governor has vetoed funding for helping pregnant teenagers, the elderly and special needs children.
Yes. I'm talking to you, Sarah Palin.
exactly ... this was one of his first jobs (before he even went to law school) and almost 10 years before he became a state legislator.
personally, I wish they'd retire "maverick"....
It is pretty easy though to take that quote that way which is why I think it deserves to be slammed. So I guess we don't buy each others story for a second.
That was actually a good quote.
was like a picture
of a sunny day
“We can complain because rose bushes have thorns, or rejoice because thorn bushes have roses.”
― Abraham Lincoln
http://cbs2chicago.com/local/chicago.summer.shootings.2.810166.html
It's the kind of snide remark and shot they usually take.
- 8/28/98
- 9/2/00
- 4/28/03, 5/3/03, 7/3/03, 7/5/03, 7/6/03, 7/9/03, 7/11/03, 7/12/03, 7/14/03
- 9/28/04, 9/29/04, 10/1/04, 10/2/04
- 9/11/05, 9/12/05, 9/13/05, 9/30/05, 10/1/05, 10/3/05
- 5/12/06, 5/13/06, 5/27/06, 5/28/06, 5/30/06, 6/1/06, 6/3/06, 6/23/06, 7/22/06, 7/23/06, 12/2/06, 12/9/06
- 8/2/07, 8/5/07
- 6/19/08, 6/20/08, 6/22/08, 6/24/08, 6/25/08, 6/27/08, 6/28/08, 6/30/08, 7/1/08
- 8/23/09, 8/24/09, 9/21/09, 9/22/09, 10/27/09, 10/28/09, 10/30/09, 10/31/09
- 5/15/10, 5/17/10, 5/18/10, 5/20/10, 5/21/10, 10/23/10, 10/24/10
- 9/11/11, 9/12/11
- 10/18/13, 10/21/13, 10/22/13, 11/30/13, 12/4/13
When Giuliani says that 'Obama was a community organizer. A...what?' and the entire convention laughs, there is no amount of spin you can put on it to make it sound good. That is offensive and demeaning to hard-working Americans. That the Republicans would actually make fun of a relatively low-income occupation, especially one that involves sacrifice for the good of the community, is the ultimate low. They should be absolutely ashamed of themselves for it. It is disgusting, hateful, and just plain out ignorant. Make fun of him for his relative amount of inexperience (they'll seem like hypocrites for supporting Palin, but that's another debate), but don't make fun of all the hard-working community organizers across this country. I'm not even a community organizer and I'm beyond offended. How anyone can support this campaign is beyond my comprehension. They have absolutely not dignity left in them.
No one is making fun of Palin for being a small-town mayor, at least no one of good stature. They are criticizing her job as the mayor of Wasilla because that, along with being governor of Alaska for 18 months, is her only qualifications to be president of the United States. After basing your entire campaign on Obama's lack of experience, to turn around and support Sarah Palin is simply ridiculous and hypocritical. There is no justification, no matter how much spin you put on 'but she's made executive decisions!'. BTW, at least Obama didn't leave his community with a $22 million deficit after being a community organizer.
Madison Square Garden 6/25/08
you can say the same thing abotu Obama, he has been in teh senate how many years and he has been running for president for what teh past 2-3 years. being a governor has resposibilities that peopel in teh senate do not have. i am not foolish for saying that she has alot of experience but she does have some. no offence but obama has never had to deal with budgets so of course he didn't leave his community in any deficit.
- Soren Aabye Kierkegaard (1813-1855)
If you haven't got anything nice to say about anybody, come sit next to me."
- Alice Roosevelt Longworth (1884-1980)
After the hateful, repetitive speeches of last night, I don't think you have the right or credibility to claim that the Democrats need better speech writers. All the Republicans come up with last night were liberal jokes, out-of-touch-with-reality comments about the economy (Romney claiming the weak economy is because of a liberal government), and distorted facts about Obama.
The only promotion of McCain/Palin I heard was "maverick" (which he was 8 years ago, not anymore), POW (talk about not being able to come up with anything else), and that Palin has executive experience (yes, but no foreign policy experience or national experience - and McCain doesn't have executive experience - and Bush had executive experience and we see how great of a president that made him).
They weren't even community organizer & mayor at the same time. Let's go through their resume, and compare where they were at the same point in time:
'80s
Obama: community organizer
Palin: television sports reporter
Early '90s
Obama: Constitutional Law professor
Palin: Wasilla City Council
Late '90s
Obama: Illinois State Senator
Palin: Mayor of Wasilla
2004-2008
Obama: U.S. Senator
Palin: Governor of Alaska
They have a similar amount of experience, but I'd think Obama has a slight edge. I'm not too concerned with experience, it's simply completely, 100% hypocritical to attack Obama for being inexperienced but support Sarah Palin for V.P. There are no if, ands, or buts about it. It's ridiculous, hypocritical, and just plain ignorant. I don't care how much spin you put on "executive experience", Sarah Palin is, at most equal to Obama in experience and qualifications to be president. I don't care if she is the V.P., that does not provide lower standards for her to meet. The V.P. candidate & Presidential candidate are held to the same qualifications - because they're both running for president of the United States. By the standards that the Republican Party has made to be president, Sarah Palin is unqualified and not ready to lead this country. Those are the Republican Party's standards and words, not mine. They have 0 credibility left to their name. None. Zip.
Madison Square Garden 6/25/08
Thank you.
I think he was a maverick and they are holding on to the old days.
I'm wondering what qualifies someone to be able to use the "maverick" claim? Is it that, by McCain's own admission, he votes with Bush 90% of the time? How is that mavericky? That seems like voting with the party currently in power.
maybe I should start a new topic asking that question...
I think I'm the opposite. I would trust the community organiser more than a mayor because to my mind, a mayor is just another politician, often concerned with power, prestige and status. I would assume that a community organiser's heart however would be more in the right place, as in they are often doing a low-status, low paid job because they care about their community, because they want to make positive changes, and because they understand the problems within that community. A mayor may have more accountability but I don't know if I'd trust their heart. That's the difference to me.
---
London, Brixton, 14 July 1993
London, Wembley, 1996
London, Wembley, 18 June 2007
London, O2, 18 August 2009
London, Hammersmith Apollo (Ed solo), 31 July 2012
Milton Keynes Bowl, 11 July 2014
I don't really see many people in the media or otherwise taking their jibes the way you are. I think you're trying to read far too much subtlety and hidden messages into something that is far more simple; a mean-spirited joke at the expense of community organziers.
I'll tell you what it is; they see community organizing as a frivolous profession, and at the risk of annoying everyone again, community organizers often deal in communities that tend to lean Democratic, so the Republican Powers that Be don't really know or care about what such a thing is. Drew was entirely right; you listen to these jokes, and there's no amount of spin anyone can use to make them turn into eloquent critiques of Obama's experience. Best to call them for what they are; mean-spirited jokes by people who were equally mean-spirited and ignorant.
http://www.thenation.com/blogs/campaignmatters/354650/obama_defends_community_organizing
What does the senator say?
Speaking of the Republican convention speakers, a clearly riled Obama said, "They haven't talked about the fact that I was a civil rights lawyer; they haven't talked about the fact that I taught constitutional law; they haven't talked about my work in the state legislature, in the United States Senate. They're talking about the three years of work that I did right out of college as if... I'm making the leap from two or three years out of college into the presidency."
Obama acknowledged that his campaign had focused attention on his experience as a community organizer. But he said, "I would argue that doing work in the community to try and create jobs, to bring people together, to rejuvenate communities that have fallen on hard times, to set up job-training programs in areas that have been hard hit when the steel plants closed, that that's relevant only in understanding where I'm coming from, who I believe in, who I'm fighting for and why I'm in this race.
"And the question I have for them is? Why would that kind of work be ridiculous? Who are they fighting for? Who are they advocating for?
"Maybe that's the problem," Obama concluded. "Maybe that's part of why they are out of touch and don't get it because they haven't spent much time working for those kind of folks."
Military recuriters based in communities, schools and colleges throughout the country to seek volunteers for service to their country.
Points of Lights Foundation a $11 billion charity foundation made up of community organizers' call for volunteer participation.
Walk-a-thons for breast cancer made up from community organizers' call for volunteer participation.
The Red Cross and organization that relies on community organizers' call for volunteer participation.
FEMA an government agency that relies on community organizers' call for volunteer participation.
Churches of all faith rely their members as community organizers' for volunteer participation in events.
Hell, the community organizers of both the DNC and RNC had to handle more responsibilty leading up to and including those event then she did in her whole tenure as mayor of Wasilla, AK.
A community organizer can, in particular events, have more influence than a mayor.
A community organizer can, in particular events, have an impact on a governor's decision.
A community organizer can make a national awareness impact on a particular event.
I guess she wouldn't know about these things living off of oil stipends.
Cheers.
I'm not talking about you; I'm talking about the Republican Party establishment that scoffed when Giuliani said "out of college, he was a community organizer. A what?" and everyone laughed? I don't see any possible spin there. They think putting on a uniform and valiantly fighting for your country is necessary and valuable service (which it is), but they think it's bullshit when someone commits to a job that is centered around revitalizing and rebuilding broken communities.
I still think the Obama's campaign first response was still the best...
"Community organizing is what ordinary people do to combat out-of-touch politicans and their failed policies."
Please note that Palin has only been Governor of Alaska (a state with less than 700,000) since December of 2006.
I probably should have noted that. She's been in the Governor's seat half the time Obama has been in his senate seat. And, yet, Obama is the inexperienced one?
I love when Sarah Palin claimed that "Unlike Obama as a community organizer, I actually had responsibilities as mayor." That is the single most ridiculous, offensive thing I have ever heard at a National Convention. Nothing is worse than that. She just insulted a working-class occupation that sacrifices much for the good of the community. I'm not trying to degrade her as mayor, but she was over 7,000 people. I don't even think she was a full-time employee.
As I pointed out about, while Obama was a community organizer, she was a sporting news broadcaster on local television. While she was mayor, he was a state senator. If anything, I would give Obama the upper hand on those two occupations.
Madison Square Garden 6/25/08
Community service might be something Jesus would do.
Then juxtapose those stories of "ordinary, hard-working Americans" with Palin and Giuliani making jackasses out of themselves. If people had an accurate, well publicized understanding of what being a community organizer means, and therefore saw what the Republicans were mocking, it'd blow right up in their face.
And the Republicans were wondering why being a "community organizer" qualifies Obama to be president. That's all.
They weren't putting down community organizers. They were putting down Obama.
(Partisan) people seem to be missing the distinction.
for the least they could possibly do
The thing is, none of the above is a qualification for being president, which is how Obama is painting his time as a "community organizer."
It's nice. It's a good thing to do. But it is a far, far cry from leader of the free world. And no, you don't have the same accountability you do as an elected official, which is the point Palin was making.
If your attempts at "community organizing" fail -- as Obama's invariably did -- nobody gets to vote you out of office. They just say, "thanks for trying."
As I mentioned on another thread, Obama including "community organizer" on his imaginary resume to be president is like me applying for CEO of Microsoft and pointing out that I once spent a summer as a fry cook at Wendy's.
It was a good, real-world experience, but appropos of nothing when it comes to the job he's applying for now.
for the least they could possibly do
Exactly. But that point is ignored and missed on this board.
If working as a community organizer was the only thing Obama had done before embarking on this "improbable journey" towards the presidency, you may have a point. It isn't, and you don't.