Community Organizers Respond to Palin's Speech

thinkprogress.org...

Last night during her speech to the Republican National Convention, Gov. Sarah Palin (R-AK) sought to play up her experience as mayor of a small town in Alaska by mocking community organizing:

PALIN: 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.

Today, the nation’s leading organization’s responded to Palin’s attack:

– Center for Community Change: When Sarah Palin demeaned community organizing, she didn’t attack another candidate. She attacked an American tradition — one that has helped everyday Americans engage with the political process and make a difference in their lives and the lives of their neighbors.

– Assn. of Community Organizations for Reform Now: ACORN members, leaders and staff are extremely disappointed that Republican leaders would make such condescending remarks on the great work community organizers accomplish in cities throughout this country. The fact that they marginalize our success in empowering low- and moderate-income people to improve their communities further illustrates their lack of touch with ordinary people.

– USAction: These groups, and the millions of individuals they represent, are dismayed by the recent dismissal of their efforts in the form of political attacks. Community organizations have been at the heart of every major reform in modern history – from the Boston Tea Party to the civil rights movement for example, the quest for civil rights began when community organizers mobilized the disenfranchised.

– Community Organizers of America: The last thing we need is for Republican officials to mock us on television when we’re trying to rebuild the neighborhoods they have destroyed. Maybe if everyone had more houses than they can count, we wouldn’t need community organizers. But I work with people who are getting evicted from their only home. If John McCain and the Republicans understood that, maybe they wouldn’t be so quick to make fun of community organizers like me.

Need I say more? This woman continues to try and belittle Obama, but only manages to piss off more American Citizens who actually work hard for a living.

Not very surprising though coming from the same writer as G.W.Bush Jr.


Thoughts?

Does everyone here feel the same way as Palin? Are our communities not important too? Are community organizers with out real responsibilities? Is affecting the life of a child or a friend in need in your community any less responsible as it is to pass a few bills that affect thousands indirectly?

This VP candidate just doesn't understand the rest of the country, but its understandable since she is from Alaska. Alaska is the same thing as Texas, only cold. Who came from Texas? President Bush. What does Texas have a lot of? Oil. Where else is there lots of oil? Alaska. Though I would say Alaska is even more detached from the national society(aka the 48 states that are mainland America). It seems to be consistent that oil breeds ignorance

Maybe Obama shouldn't have belittled Palin's history ((while at the same time skipping her governorship experience) as a small town mayor in the first place.

Obama attacks Palin's experience, Palin defends herself by comparing a mayor's duties to a community organizer, community organizers get mad....

Good job at being a guy that would supposedly change American politics by starting a divisive attack cycle. Is this the new "direction?"

Originally posted by wutone
Maybe Obama shouldn't have belittled Palin's history ((while at the same time skipping her governorship experience) as a small town mayor in the first place.

Obama attacks Palin's experience, Palin defends herself by comparing a mayor's duties to a community organizer, community organizers get mad....

Good job at being a guy that would supposedly change American politics by starting a divisive attack cycle. Is this the new "direction?"

Excuse me, but please explain when Obama had said anything about Palin's history as Govenor BEFORE Palin and McCain began attacking Obama's experience.
In fact, since WHEN has it been wrong to question anyone's experience? McCain has done it along with palin, so if its wrong for the "media" to question Palin's experience, then it must be wrong for McCain and her to question Obama back, Obama never said anything directly UNTIL Palin said something about him, it was the media, why did obama wait?
because they knew she would screw up so much they didn't even really need to do anything, the media has become so good at digging up dirt no politician wants found, WHY DO YOU THINK RON PAUL IS SO POPULAR. You'd never hear his name anywhere in which he would have a chance to actually speak his mind about how this country really works, and he is always right, but he "isn't whats best for the money"

You know whats funny, the Obama Campaign is so damn good they even checked up on all of the possible "Female VP picks" that McCain would possibly try to use in order to claim the "Hilary" votes that were left over.
You know who was the least likely possible choice? Palin. Why? Pretty/Unknown

There was never anything said by anyone in the obama campaign regarding palins personal life, only her political, everything was merely "rumor" so if the GOP comes out and tries to claim that Palin's experience as "bla bla bla" means anything, then READ THE THREAD POSTED HERE:
www.abovetopsecret.com...

And post the entire article that proves Obama said anything about Palin BEFORE she and McCain 'belittled' Obama. Post the whole article so you can't take anything out of context. If you knew what you were talking about, you would know that it is not just the media that is shocked and laughing at McCain's pick for VP, it is a huge mass of bloggers, youth voters, minority voters, and even more female voters who have decided to side with Obama after they sided with Hilary, only because McCain is a sick and twised old man with Obvious signs of "Bu#is" aka he is going to put us into more debt, promises more war, and hates "gooks" and that is a direct quote from McCain himself(aka he still has signs of Cold War and Vietnam in his old and forgetful brain.

And then prove that article actually took place, give me the "words spoken by Obama" which was covered by 2 or more media sources that backs up the post you just made and maybe you will make sense, can't be 1 source, in this election there are gauranteed multiple sources(unless they want it to be biased which is exactly what mccain's campaign has assigned for his interview trail of bs). Palin's speech and everything she said has literraly left everyything that matters in the gutter, there was nothing in her speech that wasn't pure BS and she talked about "how bad obama is" and "how good she is" and "how good McCain is" but within that there was nothing more than cheap jokes and lies about obama's PROVEN and FACTUAL history that the McCain campaign continues to distort and lie about right before every intelligent persons mind(meaning the majority, aka dumb people, will never understand)

And once you can give me that, please read this thread and then consider if your sources actualy mean anything(say fox, cnn, or bbc and your words mean nothing to tens of thousands of people who actually know what those news corporations actually mean in this world)

[edit on 5-9-2008 by MaynardisGod

[edit on 5-9-2008 by MaynardisGod]

How could McCain not attack Obama's experience, Obama has none.

Statement by Obama spokesman Bill Burton: “Today, John McCain put the former mayor of a town of 9,000 with zero foreign policy experience a heartbeat away from the presidency. Governor Palin shares John McCain’s commitment to overturning Roe v. Wade, the agenda of Big Oil and continuing George Bush’s failed economic policies — that’s not the change we need, it’s just more of the same.”

I would rather go right to the source about who said what about Palin. Bill Burton seems like a good example. If Obama wants to harp about foreign policy fine, but being a mayor provides much more relevant executive experience than any community organizer can give.

Seriously, though, seeing ACORN and other left wing groups cry about this is classic.

Everything in that Burton statement is TRUE, not opinion, not sarcasm, not mocking or belittling. It's just the facts.

I knew her comments would resound across the country. Rudy's, too. They're just nasty. And attacking what Obama did 20-some years ago was just stupid and low. I'm glad they pissed a lot of people off. I hope they keep it up.

community organizers unite!!!
you couldn't make this stuff up!

too funny, you libs crack me up!

the panic has hit a boiling point!

I grew up and lived in Detroit (SouthWest/represent) for 25 years. Where I lived it looks like a 3rd world nation or a bomb went off (pick one). In all that time I lived there, not once have I seen or met a so called Community Organizer. Even if I did, what can he do? Get me a job? Keep the CrackHeads from breaking into my garage. I don't think so. All he can do is run his mouth. Tell you what, when Barack Hussein Obama/Barry Otero or whatever his real name is, lives in MY hood and keeps it real, maybe then I will listen to him yak. Till then he and all the other college educated Elitists can step off Bitch.

If anyone should be offended, it's the mayors and governors of the country.. How idiotic can someone get as to claim their experience as a community organizer is comparable to that of a mayor or governor?

These people need to stop comparing themselves to the people involved in the Boston Tea Party and the Civil Rights movement too. It's like nurse's aides comparing themselves to a brain surgeons..




[edit on 5-9-2008 by LLoyd45]

Mother Jones was a community organizer.

Without powerful influences like Mary Harris Jones's, would women be able to even hold public office?

Where would we be without voices such as hers?

Children may have even still worked in our factories today if not for this "useless" community organizer.

Pray for the dead and fight like hell for the living.
-Mother Jones

The Miners Angel

Mother Jones Collection

My opinion on this topic is best reflected by my signature.

This is not a one line post.

I think that people in this thread that support Palin should address the issue at hand.

This isn't about attacking people's experiences of lack thereof. It's about her insult that community organizers have no actual responsibilities. You know how much has been accomplished by community organizers??? A heck of a lot. They are the grass roots for getting things moving and getting voices heard by people like Mayors and Governors.

Once again, please don't respond to my post by saying being a community organizer does not give you experience to be the president. That is not what this is about. It is about Sarah Palin belittling the men and women in our communities that devote their free time to public service.

This isn't about Obama or Sarah Palin attacking eachother, it's about the millions of people who are community organizers that Sarah Palin insulted in her speech. People who work hands on with the very communities that McCain/Obama claim to care about and then she goes and trashes them!!



They've even started a website:

Community Organizers Fight Back

Though many people are unfamiliar with community organizing, the job is both straightforward and vital: community organizers work with families who are struggling–because of low wages, poor health coverage, unaffordable housing, and other community problems–so that collectively, they can fix those problems and make government respond to their day-to-day concerns. Organizers knock on doors, attend community meetings, visit churches and synagogues and mosques, and work with unions and civic groups and block associations to help ordinary people build power and counter the influence of self-interested insiders and highly paid lobbyists at all levels of government.

Also from the site regarding some of the comments by Republicans at the convention belittling their service to the people.

-Former Governor George Pataki said: “[Barack Obama] was a community organizer. What in God’s name is a community organizer? I don’t even know if that’s a job.”

-Former Mayor Rudy Giuliani said: “On the other hand, you have a resume from a gifted man with an Ivy League education. He worked as a community organizer. What? [Laughter]…I said, OK, OK, maybe this is the first problem on the resume.”

-Governor Sarah Palin said: “I guess a small-town mayor is sort of like a community organizer, except that you have actual responsibilities.”