Thursday, September 4th, 2008...7:22 am
Just One Comment on Palin’s Speech
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Sarah Palin was given points last night for calling out Barack Obama as an “elitist” and implying that the Democrats hate folks from small towns. Then she throws in a mocking comment about Obama’s work as a community organizer in Chicago. So, let me get this straight: you aren’t allowed to say anything about anyone from a small town, even if they are running for Vice President, without getting branded an elitist, but it is perfectly okay to make fun of someone for working with poor people from the big city. Working on behalf of “the little guy” is only okay if the “little guy” comes from the right place, I guess.
33 Comments
September 4th, 2008 at 8:16 am
no. only if they are white. blacks and latinos need not apply. gawd. didn’t you read that in the platform?
September 4th, 2008 at 8:34 am
Hum,
Last time I checked, William Ayers and Tony Resko weren’t poor people, they were convicted felons. But I’ll give Obama his due, even though they can’t find anyone he helped, I’ll take him at his word that he tried. Unfortunately, we need a president with a record of successes. I like Obama as a person, but he’s woefully unqualified at this time, and we don’t need a second Carter term. Socialism has failed every single place it has been tried.
September 4th, 2008 at 8:44 am
Steve, except in Europe where their monetary unit is beating ours to death.
Drat that reality! Always so liberally biased!
And Ted, yes, I saw that speech and felt that she was insulting and degrading anyone who helps a community out. From Big Brothers Big Sisters to churches. The sad thing is, I doubt anyone in the media will notice.
September 4th, 2008 at 8:52 am
Let’s see, when Barak was a community organizer, he probably helped 10 times the people that Sarah ‘governed’ during her stint as mayor (not even a population of 6,000). Heck, I bet more people graduated from the UofA in May of ‘88 with me than live in that small town today! I guess that means the student body president at the UofA is qualified to be Veep (well, other than his age)
In her own words about being elected mayor of Wassaila (sp??) ‘It’s not rocket science, it is 243* employees and $6 million dollars’.
*not sure if that was the correct number, but you get the idea.
Her words are coming back to haunt her already. She said she will be an advocate for those with special needs children, but as governor she CUT funding for special needs children by 62%.
September 4th, 2008 at 8:54 am
Appleblossom: community organizers across the country are already getting the notice of the MSM. This morning on CNN, the host (a milf herself, but much smarter than the GILF) said she was already hearing from them about how insulted they were by this speech.
September 4th, 2008 at 9:11 am
The community organizers I spoke with last night and today seem to understand clearly that she was speaking about Obama’s diminishing her experience as a leader, and thus she had every right to claim that being a governor is a wee bit more weighty than being a community organizer. Any honest person can certainly see that.
September 4th, 2008 at 9:25 am
How convenient that Steve P was able to consult with community organizers to get their perspective on Palin’s comment about them. I guess those would be the community organizers in the basement where his computer is.
Well, the foreign policy experts in my basement say that a McCain/Palin administration would be a global disaster of epic proportions.
September 4th, 2008 at 9:43 am
Awesome you have a basement. I sure wish I did, it would be a lot cooler down there!
And come on Donna, can’t you win on anything other than fear? Disaster of epic proportions? Seriously, get a grip.
September 4th, 2008 at 9:43 am
“Big Brothers Big Sisters to churches”
Those are jobs, and people who work there do fantastic work — with the titles, responsibilities and resumes that go with them.
What’s a “community organizer” do? Did they help kids in school? Provide health care? Help give at-risk children alternatives?
Let’s quote his organization’s website to find out what they did to make the community better:
“advocating for social change”
I think it’s correct to ask, “Huh?”
September 4th, 2008 at 9:48 am
Palin was divisive and tried to undermine Obama by clinging only to a small fraction of his overall experience. That’s what you do when someone’s way out of your league. So she’s feisty but so are a lot of women. Think of Estelle Geddes’ character in the Golden Girls. Doesn’t mean either is qualified to be Vice President. “Attitude” without the experience and qualifications is sheer overconfidence and it doesn’t fool the voters, women included. Oh and to try to liken yourself to a pit bull’s reputation, classy. I feel bad for the pit bull, actually. Was it me or didn’t McCain look darned uncomfortable up there with her? And talk about a non-diverse looking crowd.
September 4th, 2008 at 9:57 am
Let’s see un-Ted, when I read “advocating for social change” in the context of a progressive community organization I think things like “help kids in school, provide health care, and give at-risk children alternatives.”
Community organizers of the type Barack Obama was when he was working in the South Side of Chicago also have a habit of registering lots of voters, the kind that don’t vote for corporatist Republicans. That’s probably what Gov. Palin was alluding to when she was mocking community organizers.
September 4th, 2008 at 9:59 am
Steve, if people are telling you they are worried about Sarah Palin, it might not necessarily be a good thing.
And I still don’t believe you. The bit about the Republican one giving the most money is laying it on a bit thick. I’m just saying.
September 4th, 2008 at 11:53 am
I found an article on what Senator Obama actually did as a 23 year old fresh out of college adult:
“It was made up of eight Catholic parishes when he got there and had one staff member. He was its director, meaning he was in charge. He made decisions about it, including staffing, budgets, etc. And when he left in 1988 to go to law school, he had grown its budget from $70,000 to $400,000, its staff from 1 to 13 people. More important, he created a job training program for this community and a college prep tutoring program.”
Apparently this was from 1985 to 1988.
So while he may have been an “unresponsible” community organizer, he apparently did a bang up job.
Mayor Palin, on the other hand, well. Um no.
September 4th, 2008 at 12:08 pm
Appleblossom,
Thanks for pointing yet another of his experiences increasing spending and the size of an organization. That’s exactly why he isn’t he guy we need.
Also, as a Catholic, I know Catholic organizations usually hire fellow Catholics in roles such as the one you describe. Can you source that information?
Last, your thoughts on Palin are way off. By all accounts she did a great job as mayor lowering taxes while repairing long neglected infrastructure. She has a 75% approval rating among DEMOCRATS in Alaska. Obama’s isn’t even that high.
September 4th, 2008 at 12:50 pm
Steve, she did a great job as mayor? She raised taxes and still left Wasilla nearly $20 million in debt. How is that a great job? http://thinkprogress.org/wonkroom/2008/09/03/wasilla-in-debt/
September 4th, 2008 at 1:13 pm
Steve P:
Um, it is nice that you have swallowed Palin’s little blue pill, washing it down with some of McCain’s tasty Kool-aid.
The fact is, even AK newspapers are questioning her qualifications and readiness to be Veep. Her own comments about becoming mayor of Vacillation… I mean Wassalia says that even she thought it was a po-dunk job.
Her record as mayor: Fire people that supported her opponent, try an ban books from the local public library. AS governor: cut funding of programs for special needs kids by 62%. She was FOR the bridge before she was against it. She was FOR Obama’s plan before she pulled it from her state website and became the veep nominee.
September 4th, 2008 at 1:20 pm
azw88,
The NY Times has already retracted and apologized for half of that misinformation you just cited.
September 4th, 2008 at 1:23 pm
I got the information on Senator Obama from the Dallas Morning News who got it from the Chicago Tribune.
http://dallasmorningviewsblog.dallasnews.com/archives/2008/09/why-do-republic.html
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0703300121mar30,0,7797542.story
As for Palin, trying to get books banned, firing a police chief, having a massive debt when leaving office, not fully funding the pension program (despite it being nearly fully funded prior to her term in office) , having high turnover in the mayoral office….so, no.
As for the “increased spending and organization” jab, sorry but is that not the point of community organizing? Getting more of the community organized?
September 4th, 2008 at 1:45 pm
Really, Can’t find any retraction on the NYTimes website.
September 4th, 2008 at 2:05 pm
The only retraction I can find is about Palin’s membership in the AIP. And the article was more about the AIP changing THEIR story about Palin being a member.
September 4th, 2008 at 2:52 pm
Maybe Steve can get one of his community organizer buddies from that conference call he had earlier to send a link. On accounta they’re so concerned about Sarah Palin and all. Or maybe he just so happens to have another conference call coming up, this time with his newspaper editor friends.
September 4th, 2008 at 3:30 pm
Steve:
By all accounts she did a great job as mayor lowering taxes while repairing long neglected infrastructure.
Not a problem, since as mayor of Wasilla she hired a Washington lobbying firm to help procure millions of dollars in Federal pork for her small town. She even once singled out Congressman Don Young and praised him for all the ‘largesse’ (her word) that he had gotten for her budget.
I could figure out a way to cut taxes and pay for infrastructure too, if somebody else was paying for it.
The fact that she now is campaigning as a crusader against pork is laughable in itself.
September 4th, 2008 at 7:35 pm
From what I have seen of Palin, she is freaky weird and all you have to do is watch her to see it.
During her speech the other night she would go from a sweet motherly face as she talked about sending her first born off to war (weird) to a curled lip snarling face as she made fun of people not exactly like her (freaky – she hates for hate’s sake). I found her to be rather disturbing and the adoring crowd bizarre. They know nothing about her except her name and the recent knowledge of a couple of her previous jobs–not to mention the idiotic people who have defended her on this board.
The only sane thing of the entire night was the honest mistake of one of the convention’s chairwomen mispronouncing her name. She made it quite clear Ms. Palin isn’t someone she is very familiar with and neither are the rest of us.
September 4th, 2008 at 9:50 pm
She royally screwed over every leader, volunteer, and frankly every “point of light” in America when she MOCKED…yes…MOCKED them.
I would take the gloves off on her and I would do it right this instant…right now.
That remark was disgusting.
September 4th, 2008 at 9:51 pm
By the way, she mocked those who lead and volunteer for our nation’s non-profits. What so many of the GOP have argued should be what replaces our system of government.
I am energized.
September 5th, 2008 at 8:54 am
All important social change, including the civil rights movement, came about from community organizing. It’s about empowering individuals and groups to rise above their oppressed state–and yes, oppression does exist, although some would deny it. To belittle community organizing as unimportant is to deny that everyday citizens are entitled to a voice.
September 5th, 2008 at 12:32 pm
Not that more discussion is really needed on this topic, but…
I think Donna’s comment about registering voters of color is right on. When Obama was an organizer on the southside of Chicago he ran an extremely successful voter registration drive. Yesterday I heard a blowhard from the Wall St. Journal’s editorial board decrying “voter fraud” yet again and attacking ACORN for doing exactly this. They are afraid of the poor/minority vote (and they should be) so they do what they do best – attack, attack, attack. Oh yes, and lie too.
September 5th, 2008 at 4:32 pm
PaulaT, thank you. When I was doing the liveblogging at Channel 12 last night Shane from Sonoran Alliance told me, “There’s going to be a national discussion on the role of community organizers in this race”. As the former director of National Right to Life in AZ, he had to have found Palin’s comment about community organizers questionable.
I’m guessing the way the discussion is going to be framed by the GOP is that *some* community organizers, e.g. anti-abortion ones are good. Others, e.g. groups like ACORN who rile up poor and brown people and get them voting are unsavory.
Plus, any red herring that distracts from the issues and the last disastrous 8 years under the GOP helps them. So demonizing community organizers it is.
September 7th, 2008 at 1:33 pm
Why are the GOP so worried about ‘community organizers’?
You don’t get your shorts in a knot over a group of people or a job classification if don’t actually do something which bothers you. Palin was giving the impression that community organizing was a worthless activity – not worthy of a candidate for political office.
Apparently, community organizers are about getting a vote out (doesn’t the GOP have its own GOTV plan – of course it does – drive the seniors to the polls, etc), getting people organized around issues (doesn’t the GOP have its issue organizing people – Right to Life, NRA, etc), empowering people who don’t usually get involved (for the GOP that would be the evangelical vote in the 80s and 90s – Paul Weyrich-types).
The issue isn’t ‘community organizing’ that Palin is concerned about. It is about the kind of community organizing that Obama represents.
Who did Obama organize? Poor folks, disenfranchised folks, folks who didn’t think their vote counted. He organized around issues like job development (GOP does that through trickle down economics, so they say) and improved education for his community. When you organize people around local issues that make a difference, you give them power. People in power don’t appreciate it when the issues drive the discussion and not the money (esp. special interest money). This is what creates fear in the hearts of the Palins of the world.
I know – I have done my share of commuity organizing in the past 35 years.
September 7th, 2008 at 4:46 pm
They forget to note that while Barak Obama first foray into public service was as a community organizer where he was doing things like building training centers, improving housing for low income people and Sarah Palin’s first move into ‘community service’ was as on the local PTA, where she did earth-shattering services like holding bake sales.
Of course, unless you count taking time off from college to run for Ms Wasallia as community service.
September 7th, 2008 at 6:09 pm
And Palin’s “executive experience” as Mayor of Wasilla left it $20 million in debt and well on its way to becoming the meth capital of AK.
I’m developing a bit of an obsession with her on my blog but she frightens me to the core of my being. She is George Bush in lipstick.
September 7th, 2008 at 7:36 pm
Donna, I looked at your blog. You’re right, you are developing an obsession.
Was it just three weeks ago that I had never heard of Sarah Palin? Oh, the longing to return to what I now see as a comparatively blissful time.
September 8th, 2008 at 12:29 am
Liza, don’t get complacent. She is literally Bush in lipstick, and more articulate. Biden, please please please shut her down in the debate.