Thursday, September 04, 2008

Obama's excellent experience as a community organizer

David Plouffe, Barack Obama's campaign manager, is bristling that Sarah Palin dared to think that being a small town mayor gave her more executive experience than Obama's two years as a "community organizer," which is undoubtedly true.

Plouffe tries to deflect her accurate observation by suggesting that she was putting down community organizers, rather than challenging the specific charge that she is totally inexperienced. Here's what he said (from the e-mails he tediously sends to Obama supporters asking for yet more money):

Community organizing is how ordinary people respond to out-of-touch politicians and their failed policies.

And it's no surprise that, after eight years of George Bush, millions of people have found that by coming together in their local communities they can change the course of history. That promise is what our campaign has been about from the beginning.

Okay, David, here's a question for you: How did Obama change history as a community organizer? What did he accomplish during those two years that you can specify that had any impact on Chicago? Did it get the shuttered steel mill re-opened? Did he lift anyone out of poverty? How many people did he employ?

As a Chicago journalist, I can't say that I've notice that he has done any of this. But he did get a couple of years of promotable material for his resume.

Here is
Plouffe's e-mail in its entirety:

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.

You know that despite what John McCain and his attack squad say, everyday people have the power to build something extraordinary when we come together. Make a donation of $5 or more right now to remind them.

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.

And it's no surprise that, after eight years of George Bush, millions of people have found that by coming together in their local communities they can change the course of history. That promise is what our campaign has been about from the beginning.

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.

Enough is enough. Make your voice heard loud and clear by making a $5 donation right now:

[Link deleted. If you want to contribute, find it yourself.--editor]


Thank you for joining more than 2 million ordinary Americans who refuse to be silenced.

David

David Plouffe
Campaign Manager
Obama for America

The bitter, bitter, bitter Gloria Steinem

After Sarah Palin's rousing, first-class convention speech, Gloria Steinem unleashed all ten fingernails with this nastiness in the Los Angeles Times. In it, she asserts that Palin's unworthiness partially flows from the fact that, "She was elected governor largely because the incumbent was unpopular..." In other words, a fluke.

If that's the case, Steinem needs to reminded of how Bararck Obama got to be elected a U.S. senator from Illinois: By the implosion of his opposition. In the Democratic primary, his major opponent, Blair Hull, was done in by revelations about ugliness in his marriage. His Republican opponent, Jack Ryan, in the general election was done in by...revelations about ugliness in his marriage. Left without a candidate and no credible volunteers, the desperate Republicans imported a natural disaster, Alan Keyes. In other words, Obama's election was arguably a fluke.

Hat tip to Newsalert

Interesting and latest tracking poll...

done before Sarah Palin gave her convention speech Wednesday night.

Here is some of what the Rasmussen report found:

Last night’s polling shows that, by a ten-to-one margin, voters believe reporters are trying to hurt Palin’s campaign rather than help. Republicans and unaffiliated voters strongly believe that a double standard is being applied to Palin because she is a woman. Democrats disagree. Perhaps most stunning is that, among unaffiliated voters, just 42% believe Obama has better experience than Palin to be President. Thirty-seven percent (37%) say Palin has the edge on experience. Again, most of the interviews for this survey were completed before Palin’s well-received speech last night.

Polling released yesterday showed that 12% of Americans now believe Palin is Very Likely to be the first woman elected President of the United States. Fourteen percent (14%) say the same about Hillary Clinton.

Today is the second straight day that the results have inched very slightly in McCain’s direction as the GOP convention gets underway and seeks to overcome Obama’s convention bounce.


For full story, go here and here.

How Obama lost the election

This could be the best commentary I've seen yet on the presidential election. I highly recommend it.

Hat tip: Kati Spaniak

DeSantis replies to Trump

 "Check the scoreboard." Follow this link:  https://fb.watch/gPF0Y6cq5P/