WTF is a "Community Organizer"?

[Torie]

community organizer = rabble rouser. 

[Saxwsylvania]

'community organizer' is just the sanitized term for poverty pimp.

and it has the added benefit of making handwringers feel warm and fuzzy inside.

Bingo.

[Nym90]

If you actually cared about what a community organizer is/does (I honestly don't know)

+10 points for having the balls to admit you don't know what qualifies Obama to be President.

I can't speak for others, but his better judgment on the key issues of the day are what qualifies him to me. Sure, experience is great, but it's not everything; I'd rather have someone who is right on the issues than someone who has experience any day of the week and twice on Tuesdays.

As others have pointed out, I'm sure you didn't make this argument in 2000. Also of course there's the fact that Abraham Lincoln was perhaps the least experienced person to serve as President in the nation's history while James Buchanan was the most experienced, if we want just one prime example.

Obama's experience is in helping people make themselves and the people around them better, and that kind of experience can help shape a person's values in (in my opinion) a more constructive way than 22 years inside the Washington beltway can.

[Platypus]

community organizer = rabble rouser. 

And rousing rabble is crucial to America's urban (and in the case, mainly black) poor.

[Bleeding heart conservative, HTMLdon]

I can't speak for others, but his better judgment on the key issues of the day are what qualifies him to me.

Where is his better judgement exactly?

I know he showed "better judgement" by opposing Iraq war in the Illinois State Senate transportation committee, traffic light placement sub-commitee -- and he took strong stands against poverty when he took money from slumlord Tony Rezko -- but where else has this better judgement shined through?

[Nym90]

I can't speak for others, but his better judgment on the key issues of the day are what qualifies him to me.

Where is his better judgement exactly?

I know he showed "better judgement" by opposing Iraq war in the Illinois State Senate transportation committee, traffic light placement sub-commitee -- and he took strong stands against poverty when he took money from slumlord Tony Rezko -- but where else has this better judgement shined through?

Opposition to the war anywhere is better than support for it anywhere. I realize you don't agree with that fundamental premise, so I think it's best to leave it at that rather than try to be absurd about it.

And the policies he advocates would better reduce poverty than McCain's opposition to universal health care and his support for suspension of the gas tax so as to further bleed money away from needed infrastructure projects that put people to work and reduce congestion on our transportation network (thus, oh yeah, reducing consumption of fuel and therefore saving money on gas). Not to mention his new found love of tax cuts.

But yeah, for me, I'll admit that "better judgement" and "more progressive positions on the issues" are pretty much one and the same. Luckily for me, others finally seem to be coming around to that view after 30 years in the wilderness.

[Eraserhead]

'community organizer' is just the sanitized term for poverty pimp.

and it has the added benefit of making handwringers feel warm and fuzzy inside.

Oh please Walter. Why exactly are you supporting Obama anyway?

[Nym90]

'community organizer' is just the sanitized term for poverty pimp.

and it has the added benefit of making handwringers feel warm and fuzzy inside.

Oh please Walter. Why exactly are you supporting Obama anyway?

Probably because he's very passionate about the issue of health care; the same reason why he was for Clinton in the primary (and I agree that she did have a better health care plan, overall).

I agree with Wally on the health care issue, and disagree with his belittlement of Obama's experiences....non political and life experience can be just as important as political experience. I respect Obama's attempts to better young black youths and turn them away from gang violence and the poisonous culture it celebrates. I think that's done a lot more to improve the world than 95 percent of McCain's votes on the Senate floor, to be sure.

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

'community organizer' is just the sanitized term for poverty pimp.

and it has the added benefit of making handwringers feel warm and fuzzy inside.

Oh please Walter. Why exactly are you supporting Obama anyway?

Hey, no need to scare away voters from Obama. It could be that Mitty really wants something done about health care. 

[Gustaf]

Community organizer is a great and valuable experience that will be of much use to Obama. Part of the sweeping, earth-shattering change that will be imposed on American politics by our president-elect is the novel approach he will take to Congress. Instead of the Democrats and Republicans organizing as political parties, Obama will organize them all as a community, drawing on his experience in that field. After all, we are not Republicans and Democrats, not senators and house representatives but, now and forever, first and foremost AMERICANS.

Everyone will drink free soup and vote for peace and a glorious era will commence.


-------------------------------------

I don't think there is anything wrong with being a community organizer though. But I don't think of it as much qualification for the presidency (and, yeah, showing the kind of courage and resilience McCain did in the war is worth more, imo). But it is of course true that this kind of talk gets around every time it is viable.

I do have some leeway in this case, however, as I supported Kerry in 2004 and McCain now, having a strong record of consistent war-hero support. I support the veterans. Where do YOU stand?

[J. J.]

Community organizer is a great and valuable experience that will be of much use to Obama. Part of the sweeping, earth-shattering change that will be imposed on American politics by our president-elect is the novel approach he will take to Congress. Instead of the Democrats and Republicans organizing as political parties, Obama will organize them all as a community, drawing on his experience in that field. After all, we are not Republicans and Democrats, not senators and house representatives but, now and forever, first and foremost AMERICANS.

Everyone will drink free soup and vote for peace and a glorious era will commence.


-------------------------------------

I don't think there is anything wrong with being a community organizer though. But I don't think of it as much qualification for the presidency (and, yeah, showing the kind of courage and resilience McCain did in the war is worth more, imo). But it is of course true that this kind of talk gets around every time it is viable.

I do have some leeway in this case, however, as I supported Kerry in 2004 and McCain now, having a strong record of consistent war-hero support. I support the veterans. Where do YOU stand?

You forgot that they'll be singing Kumbaya.

[elcorazon]

Does "Community Organizer" > War hero?

1.  in my book, it's about as impressive, depending on the details of each.
2.  I assume you voted for Kerry the war hero over W, the avoider of the war at home in the Guard (when he decided to show up) and Cheney the deferral king, right?


forgive me, I didn't even read the thread, only the initial post.

[J. J.]

If you actually cared about what a community organizer is/does (I honestly don't know)

+10 points for having the balls to admit you don't know what qualifies Obama to be President.

I can't speak for others, but his better judgment on the key issues of the day are what qualifies him to me. Sure, experience is great, but it's not everything; I'd rather have someone who is right on the issues than someone who has experience any day of the week and twice on Tuesdays.

In all fairness, what little of judgment I've seen, makes me less likely to vote for Obama.  He's associated two people, that he knows (Wright and the Catholic Priest), that he's had to remove.  He's showed poor judgment in his dealings with Rezko.

Now, none of those things are major, IMO, but we don't have a lot of examples of his judgment.  We have Obama saying, "I was against the war, but I didn't look at the intelligence reports either."

You must be logged in to read this quote.

Both comments are demonstrably false, historically, since we had substantially more experienced presidents prior to 1856 (Harrison, van Buren, Jackson, and Tyler come to mind) and at least one (Tayor) who never voted in his life.

[Downwinder]

Seven posts on this thread and no one can seem to identify what a Community Organizer is, yet it

Oh, that's easy enough. It's someone who mobilizes individuals within a community to engage political institutions to respond to the community's needs. It's done through voter registration, identification, and canvassing, through contacting representatives, and by crafting a targeted media and lobbying message that clearly identifies goals and seeks to have them fulfilled by elected and appointed officials.

"Nineteen ninety-two was a crucial election year in Illinois. Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton was hoping to carry a swing state that President George H.W. Bush had won by a scant 2 percentage points four years earlier, and Illinois’ Cook County Recorder of Deeds Carol Moseley Braun was attempting to become the nation’s first African-American female senator. Close observers believed that a swell in black turnout could make the difference in both contests, but activists feared that the leadership of Chicago’s Democratic Party — which historically hadn’t pushed registration in majority-black wards — would squander the opportunity.

In stepped a young organizer named Barack Obama. Fresh out of Harvard Law School, Obama moved to Chicago to head up the local branch of Project Vote, a D.C.-based non-partisan voter registration organization focused in low-income communities of color. Recruiting staff and volunteers from community groups and black churches, he helped train 700 deputy registrars and devised a comprehensive media campaign based around the slogan “It’s a Power Thing.” His volunteers hit the streets and registered more than 150,000 black voters in only six months. According to a 1993 report from Chicago magazine, the elections “turned on these totals.”"

http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/3741/expand_the_vote/

The rest of that piece deals mostly with HOW community organizing could help Obama win in November---by registering new voters.  That's just one piece of what a community organizer does.  And in my opinion, a lot of what Senator Obama did as a community organizer is just as valid and important as what Senator McCain did as a war hero--they both fought for democracy, in their own ways.

[Gustaf]

Seven posts on this thread and no one can seem to identify what a Community Organizer is, yet it

Oh, that's easy enough. It's someone who mobilizes individuals within a community to engage political institutions to respond to the community's needs. It's done through voter registration, identification, and canvassing, through contacting representatives, and by crafting a targeted media and lobbying message that clearly identifies goals and seeks to have them fulfilled by elected and appointed officials.

"Nineteen ninety-two was a crucial election year in Illinois. Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton was hoping to carry a swing state that President George H.W. Bush had won by a scant 2 percentage points four years earlier, and Illinois’ Cook County Recorder of Deeds Carol Moseley Braun was attempting to become the nation’s first African-American female senator. Close observers believed that a swell in black turnout could make the difference in both contests, but activists feared that the leadership of Chicago’s Democratic Party — which historically hadn’t pushed registration in majority-black wards — would squander the opportunity.

In stepped a young organizer named Barack Obama. Fresh out of Harvard Law School, Obama moved to Chicago to head up the local branch of Project Vote, a D.C.-based non-partisan voter registration organization focused in low-income communities of color. Recruiting staff and volunteers from community groups and black churches, he helped train 700 deputy registrars and devised a comprehensive media campaign based around the slogan “It’s a Power Thing.” His volunteers hit the streets and registered more than 150,000 black voters in only six months. According to a 1993 report from Chicago magazine, the elections “turned on these totals.”"

http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/3741/expand_the_vote/

The rest of that piece deals mostly with HOW community organizing could help Obama win in November---by registering new voters.  That's just one piece of what a community organizer does.  And in my opinion, a lot of what Senator Obama did as a community organizer is just as valid and important as what Senator McCain did as a war hero--they both fought for democracy, in their own ways.

Clinton: 2 453 350
Bush:    1 734 096

I'm sure that 14% nail-biter margin was due to Obama's effort.

There's more of a case with the senatorial election though:



Mosley-Braun: 2 631 229
Williamson:     2 126 833

That was almost not double digits. If Obama could deliver half a million votes as a community organizer, imagine what he can do as a presidential candidate! Extrapolating to the country he will probably deliver half a hundred million this time.

[Saxwsylvania]

It is unfortunate that Obama's opposition to the Iraq War is ascribed to his mythical "good judgment" (which is much in evidence considering his association with Rezko, Ayres, Wright, and party affiliation) when in fact it was simply his refusal to deviate from the far-left fringe wing of the Democrat line. 

If the war had turned out to be a success (which is quite possible had we not had Rumsfeld/Bush) then Obama would be running away from his war vote.

In short, the left has not nominated a man of good judgment.  They have nominated a man whose judgment is illusory due to the shifting winds of the political climate.

[cannonia]

"Nineteen ninety-two was a crucial election year in Illinois. Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton was hoping to carry a swing state that President George H.W. Bush had won by a scant 2 percentage points four years earlier, and Illinois’ Cook County Recorder of Deeds Carol Moseley Braun was attempting to become the nation’s first African-American female senator. Close observers believed that a swell in black turnout could make the difference in both contests, but activists feared that the leadership of Chicago’s Democratic Party — which historically hadn’t pushed registration in majority-black wards — would squander the opportunity.

In stepped a young organizer named Barack Obama. Fresh out of Harvard Law School, Obama moved to Chicago to head up the local branch of Project Vote, a D.C.-based non-partisan voter registration organization focused in low-income communities of color. Recruiting staff and volunteers from community groups and black churches, he helped train 700 deputy registrars and devised a comprehensive media campaign based around the slogan “It’s a Power Thing.” His volunteers hit the streets and registered more than 150,000 black voters in only six months. According to a 1993 report from Chicago magazine, the elections “turned on these totals.”"

To be honest, "community organizer" sounds just like the kind of job that pretends to be non-partisan and works to elect Democrats.  It's just like Obama's "sacrifice" by taking that job and building the connections to become an elected official.