ProgressOhio

It seems I wasn't the only viewer who took strong exception to Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin's dismissal of Barack Obama's service as a Chicago community organizer…and of the value of community organizing in general.. during her speech in St. Paul Wednesday night (see yesterday's Community News posting, Gov. Palin: This Is How Democracy Works!)
The Chicago Tribune (see today's Dispatch, A4) quotes Obama as saying he finds Palin's remark "curious."
Appearing in Lancaster, Pa., he explained:

"I would argue that dong work in the community to try and create jobs, to bring people together, to rejuvenate communities that would have fallen on hard times, to set up job-training programs to areas that have been hard hit when the steel plants closed, that that's relevant only in understanding where I'm coming from, who I believe in, who I'm fighting for and why I'm in this race."

Also curious was the fact that McCain, in the wind-up of his speech last night, urged all Americans to get involved in their communities and in the political process to bring about change. One way to do that, of course, is community organizing, regardless of your party.
Palin, on the other hand, seemed to assume that community organizing only referred to Tammany Hall-type recruiting of the urban poor. And she calls herself a reformer!

McCain was more partisan when, in his speech yesterday, he went after Obama by saying "I'm not running for president because I think I'm blessed with such personal greatness that history has anointed me to save our country in its hour of need."
The Republican audience cheered lustily at this, perhaps forgetting that in 2000 and 2004 their party was just as eager to support a Republican standard-bearer who claimed his mandate from God.