Obama Campaign Defends Community Organizing

Obama Campaign Defends Community Organizing


Thursday, September 04, 2008
By Susan Jones, Senior Editor




Sen. John McCain's running mate Sarah Palin addresses the Republican National Convention on Sept. 3. - Sen. Barack Obama’s presidential Campaign Manager David Plouffe said he wasn’t planning to post a message on the campaign Web site Wednesday night -- “But if you saw what I saw from the Republican convention, you know that it demands a response,” he wrote.

“I saw John McCain's attack squad of negative, cynical politicians,” said Plouffe, referring to former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani and Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin.

“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.”

Plouffe then defended Obama’s experience as a community organizer, which John McCain’s running mate mocked in her speech:

“Before I became governor of the great state of Alaska, I was mayor of my hometown,” Sarah Palin said. “And since our opponents in this presidential election seem to look down on that experience, let me explain to them what the job involves.

“I guess a small-town mayor is sort of like a ‘community organizer,’ except that you have actual responsibilities,” she said as cheers erupted. “I might add that in small towns, we don't quite know what to make of a candidate who lavishes praise on working people when they are listening, and then talks about how bitterly they cling to their religion and guns when those people aren't listening. We tend to prefer candidates who don't talk about us one way in Scranton and another way in San Francisco,” she said.

The remarks stung the Obama campaign:

“Let's clarify something for them right now,” Plouffe said in his Wednesday night posting. “Community organizing is how ordinary people respond to out-of-touch politicians and their failed policies.”

Plouffe mentioned that community organizing is the foundation of the civil rights movement, the women’s suffrage movement, and labor rights. “Throughout our history, ordinary people have made good on America's promise by organizing for change from the bottom up,” he said.

It’s still happening today, he said, as Americans rebel against the policies of President George W. Bush.

“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,” Plouffe said.

In her speech Wednesday night, Palin referred to the many promises Obama has made in the course of his campaign, asking “how are you going to be better off” if he does what he said he’s going to do:

“What does he actually seek to accomplish, after he's done turning back the waters and healing the planet?” Palin asked, joking about Obama’s reputation as the “messiah.”

“The answer is to make government bigger -- take more of your money, give you more orders from Washington, and to reduce the strength of America in a dangerous world. America needs more energy, our opponent is against producing it.

“Victory in Iraq is finally in sight -- he wants to forfeit. Terrorist states are seeking new-clear weapons without delay -- he wants to meet them without preconditions. Al Qaeda terrorists still plot to inflict catastrophic harm on America -- he's worried that someone won't read them their rights? Government is too big -- he wants to grow it. Congress spends too much -- he promises more. Taxes are too high -- he wants to raise them…,” Palin said.

Plouffe accused the McCain campaign of employing “desperate lies and personal attacks” to earn a third term for “Bush policies that McCain has supported more than 90 percent of the time.”

Plouffe also made two requests for donations, one in the fourth paragraph and one at the end of his message, in the 13th paragraph.