In the past few months, I’ve been surprised at how often Barack Obama cites his three years as a Chicago community organizer as one of his prime qualifications to run the executive branch. Does he really think that that particular resume point connects with people on some deep level? Does he think it inspires voters to get in touch with their inner Saul Alinsky?
Whatever the case, it’s clear that community organizing is a cherished part of the Obama narrative. So the jabs from Sarah Palin and Rudy Giuliani — some of them funny and quite effective — hit home last night in Chicago. Just look at this, an email to donors from Obama campaign manager David Plouffe:
I wasn’t planning on sending you something tonight. But if you saw what I saw from the Republican convention, you know that it demands a response.
I saw John McCain’s attack squad of negative, cynical politicians. They lied about Barack Obama and Joe Biden, and they attacked you for being a part of this campaign.
But worst of all — and this deserves to be noted — they insulted the very idea that ordinary people have a role to play in our political process…
Both Rudy Giuliani and Sarah Palin specifically mocked Barack’s experience as a community organizer on the South Side of Chicago more than two decades ago, where he worked with people who had lost jobs and been left behind when the local steel plants closed.
Let’s clarify something for them right now.
Community organizing is how ordinary people respond to out-of-touch politicians and their failed policies… [emphasis in original]
Throughout our history, ordinary people have made good on America’s promise by organizing for change from the bottom up. Community organizing is the foundation of the civil rights movement, the women’s suffrage movement, labor rights, and the 40-hour workweek. And it’s happening today in church basements and community centers and living rooms across America.
Meanwhile, we still haven’t gotten a single idea during the entire Republican convention about the economy and how to lift a middle class so harmed by the Bush-McCain policies.
It’s now clear that John McCain’s campaign has decided that desperate lies and personal attacks — on Barack Obama and on you — are the only way they can earn a third term for the Bush policies that McCain has supported more than 90 percent of the time.
But you can send a crystal clear message.
And guess how you can do that? Well, $25 would help…