# The RNC Sarah Palin Speech Thread **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [September 4, 2008, 2:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-rnc-sarah-palin-speech-thread/461931 "2008-09-04T02:23:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 13
**Author:** ![Whack-a-Mole](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whack-a-mole/32/141_2.png) [@Whack-a-Mole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whack-a-Mole)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2008, 1:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-rnc-sarah-palin-speech-thread/461931/241 "2008-09-05T13:57:06Z")
> [@Siam\_Sam](#): > > I just get tired of what appears to be people thinking these guys all make up their own speeches. The poking fun at Palin having a speech writer is that her speech was written before anyone (even McCain) knew who the VP candidate would be. As such it feels like a canned speech and cannot tell us anything about the candidate. Granted they modified the speech some to make it more “feminine” (or something like that) but nevertheless it wasn’t “her”. That said I grant she delivered it very well and that is indeed an important skill not to be underestimated or taken away from her. As for writing speeches Obama, by and large, actually writes most of his speeches. At least his most important ones. Yes he has a speech writer (a 27 year old kid no less…apparently some kind of prodigy writer) and he uses him (and others) to help edit and refine his speeches. That said I have a vague recollection of Obama’s speech writer being handed Obama’s race speech that Obama wrote and being bowled over at how good it was. So, Obama is not just about delivery, his speeches are largely him as well. For me that is a bonus as an insight into how Obama’s mind works and not his speech writer’s. ---
**Author:** ![tnetennba](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7993a0/32.png) [@tnetennba](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tnetennba)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2008, 2:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-rnc-sarah-palin-speech-thread/461931/242 "2008-09-05T14:06:16Z")
The spin is that Palin is an outsider who’s going to shake up Washington, but she’s just a puppet for the existing Republican administration, saying what they tell her to say. That’s why people are making a point that she’s got a speech writer… a Bush speech writer, writing a speech without a candidate in mind. And they say Obama supporters have drank the Kool Aid! ---
**Author:** ![papaw](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/b77776/32.png) [@papaw](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/papaw)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2008, 2:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-rnc-sarah-palin-speech-thread/461931/243 "2008-09-05T14:15:43Z")
I enjoyed the speech and was pleased at the choice of her for VP. I think she is just the balance McCain needs to get enough votes to win. ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2008, 2:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-rnc-sarah-palin-speech-thread/461931/244 "2008-09-05T14:25:48Z")
Balance? You mean they can now appeal to the fascists _and_ the Nazis? ---
**Author:** ![tnetennba](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7993a0/32.png) [@tnetennba](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tnetennba)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2008, 2:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-rnc-sarah-palin-speech-thread/461931/245 "2008-09-05T14:37:22Z")
Oh, they might win the election. They’ll still do a shitty job running the country, though. And in another four years they’ll run somebody promising to change Washington. ---
**Author:** ![Least\_Original\_User\_Name\_Ever](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e480ec/32.png) [@Least\_Original\_User\_Name\_Ever](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Least_Original_User_Name_Ever)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2008, 2:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-rnc-sarah-palin-speech-thread/461931/246 "2008-09-05T14:44:35Z")
> [@monstro](#): > > Yeah, the people who need the most organizing are the ones we shouldn’t have any dealings with. Because they’re dirty and slothful, and if they would just pull themselves up by their bootstraps, then they wouldn’t need any pansy librul do-gooding on their behalf. > > Really, all the laughing about the “community” made me angry. My mother is a community activist. She works 12 hours days and struggles monthly to pay her staff and herself, just so that poor people don’t have to go hungry. For her, it was a calling from God (she’s a minister). But the Republicans only seem to get callings from God when it involves war. So maybe it’s not their fault that they don’t understand. > > I’m sure over the course of my mother’s 30+ years of work, her organization has helped more people than have ever lived in Alaska, let alone currently live there. And I’m sure there’s more nights that she’s gone to bed completely stressed out than Hockey Mom has. > > The Republicans are the FIRST to point the finger at the black community and yell at us for not helping ourselves. What, do they think out-of-wedlock parenting and the academic achievement gap is supposed to be solved WITHOUT community activism of some type? They think the government can do a better job? Oh, wait! They’re the party of small government, where everyone can take care of themselves. Forget that that kind of individualism goes against so-called “Christian” values. Wouldn’t want to highlight yet another example of conservative hypocrisy, would we? > > Every time I try to find common ground with conservatives, I am thwarted by the words that come out of their mouths. > > **jsgoddess** , you’re my sister from another mister, girl. It becomes very interesting that self-confessed Christians throw away the New Testament whenever possible. ---
**Author:** ![Least\_Original\_User\_Name\_Ever](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e480ec/32.png) [@Least\_Original\_User\_Name\_Ever](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Least_Original_User_Name_Ever)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2008, 2:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-rnc-sarah-palin-speech-thread/461931/247 "2008-09-05T14:47:04Z")
> [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](#): > > When was she a community organizer, and who made fun it? > > The fact that they’re trying to package her experience as the mayor of Wasilla, Alaska as “executive experience” analogous to be President of the United states is, of course, eminiently laughable. > > I’ve done comminity organizing and this bitch can fuck right off for pissing all over two years I spent busting my ass for peanuts starting and running inner city day camps and after school clubs, cleaning up and restoring neighborhood parks and helping build habitat houses just to try to make a little bit of difference in the world. I’d like to see that stuck up, elitist cunt do one fucking day of the work that I did. > > Jesus, the more I think about the community organizer swipes, the more it pisses me off. Was it really necessary to insult thousands of people who aren’t doing anything but trying to help others? What pisses me off the most is that they’ve gotten a totally free ride for it. No one’s called them on it. If Barack Obama had insulted, say, plumbers, it’s all that would get talked about for a month. > > Who the fuck do these fucking rich, snob Republicans think _lives_ in those communities? It’s the exact same, blue collar, working class stiffs that McCain is trying to court. > > Well they can all lick my community organizing ass. No, I think they can all get together, plan how they’re going to kiss my ass and then all get together, and as a community, line up and kiss my ass. ---
**Author:** ![Huerta88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/82dd89/32.png) [@Huerta88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Huerta88)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2008, 2:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-rnc-sarah-palin-speech-thread/461931/248 "2008-09-05T14:52:38Z")
> [@monstro](#): > > Yeah, the people who need the most organizing are the ones we shouldn’t have any dealings with. Because they’re dirty and slothful, and if they would just pull themselves up by their bootstraps, then they wouldn’t need any pansy librul do-gooding on their behalf. > > Really, all the laughing about the “community” made me angry. My mother is a community activist. She works 12 hours days and struggles monthly to pay her staff and herself, just so that poor people don’t have to go hungry. For her, it was a calling from God (she’s a minister). But the Republicans only seem to get callings from God when it involves war. So maybe it’s not their fault that they don’t understand. > > I’m sure over the course of my mother’s 30+ years of work, her organization has helped more people than have ever lived in Alaska, let alone currently live there. And I’m sure there’s more nights that she’s gone to bed completely stressed out than Hockey Mom has. > > The Republicans are the FIRST to point the finger at the black community and yell at us for not helping ourselves. What, do they think out-of-wedlock parenting and the academic achievement gap is supposed to be solved WITHOUT community activism of some type? They think the government can do a better job? Oh, wait! They’re the party of small government, where everyone can take care of themselves. Forget that that kind of individualism goes against so-called “Christian” values. Wouldn’t want to highlight yet another example of conservative hypocrisy, would we? > > Every time I try to find common ground with conservatives, I am thwarted by the words that come out of their mouths. I am going to play the race card, if not the racism card, in examining what’s going on with the “community organizer” slam. I think it’s not unrelated to BHO’s being black. I think it’s a political (not racist) attempt to tar him by association. Here’s my thinking: most white Americans are okay (if only retrospectively) with MLK’s having been a “civil rights leader.” But . . . most white Americans are not convinced that “civil rights leader” is a viable or legitimate full-time occupation for anyone at this point in time. And, what they’ve been presented with under that label over the past twenty years have been guys who most whites (and probably many blacks) regard as charlatans, poverty pimps, race hustlers, Armani-sporting, professional agitators. In short, civil rights leader, or community leader, or community activist, reads as Jackson or Sharpton or there mini-me imitators (I’ve recently seen some clown calling himself “Quannel X” getting seriously quoted in the Houston papers – I can’t remember if they refer to him as “Mr. X.”). The unfortunate thing about “community organizer” is that it sounds similarly nebulous and undefined and self-anointed, just as does “community leader.” I am pretty sure that if Obama’s resume read “soup kitchen organizer” or “after school program organizer” or “Habitat for Humanity” organizer, even Republicans would say, well, that’s a noble if kind of hippie-ish way to try to help. “Community organizer,” though, leaves open the possibility that he was just organizing rallies against the cops or something, which, frankly, does not play well to the middle class. I don’t know enough about what, specifically, he was organizing to opine, but I suspect it had some political aspect (registering voters?) but was nothing as brazenly unhelpful and opportunistic as a Sharpton. But by seizing on the ambiguity of the job title, the Republicans very effectively put him in the same box as the worst of the do-nothing troublemakers that whites (not just in the GOP, mind you) would be happy to see slammed instead of treated as respected voices. If I were BHO, I’d address this head on and stop using the phrase – get specific about what you were doing during those years. ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2008, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-rnc-sarah-palin-speech-thread/461931/249 "2008-09-05T14:57:03Z")
The media has decided they want to make a celebrity out Palin, and that’s a problem for Obama because it’s obstructing any kind of critical public discussion of her many, many, seriously distressing positions and past actions. Ironic that the entirely weightless media celebrity tag applies to Palin far more than it applies to Obama. The media isn’t going to do its job, so Obama/Biden has to. I think they should run some ads highlighting her extreme social positions, her ethical problems and her utter lack of qualifications. I think a smack back at her snobbish and idiotic insult to community organizers would be a good ide ato. Do an ad showing what community organizers do, helping people and doing real work. Then contrast that with Palin’s part time job as the Mayor of Moose Cock, Alaska, where her main concerns were loyalty oaths and book banning. By the way, I’m sick of hearing her stupid “hockey mom” meme. Hockey moms are upper middle class, not salt of the earth. Hockey is expensive. That shit is for rich kids. ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2008, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-rnc-sarah-palin-speech-thread/461931/250 "2008-09-05T15:20:54Z")
> [@Huerta88](#): > > I don’t know enough about what, specifically, he was organizing to opine, but I suspect it had some political aspect (registering voters?) but was nothing as brazenly unhelpful and opportunistic as a Sharpton. His community organizing work had nothing to do with politics. [This](http://www.dcpincorp.org/) is the organization that Obama worked for. It’s called the Developing Communities Project, and it was a faith based organization – a coalition of local churches – focused on a offering a number of different kinds of support on the south side of Chicago. Obama was hired there after the closing of a steel mill on the south side had thrown a lot of people of work and out of their homes. He worked specifically on job training, education, housing support, tenants’ rights and other advocacy issues of that nature. There was nothing self-promoting or political about it. He worked for a network of churches tring to help neighborhoods get back on their feet after massive layoffs. ---
**Author:** ![jsc1953](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/5daacb/32.png) [@jsc1953](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jsc1953)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2008, 3:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-rnc-sarah-palin-speech-thread/461931/251 "2008-09-05T15:24:22Z")
McCain’s rousing “call to service” at the end of his speech (which I did find quite stirring, actually) was a job description for “community organizer”. I would love to hear Obama make that point. To paraphrase Tolkien, the Republicans didn’t demonstrate much ability to “make” (a vision for getting the country out of its current mess), they can only “mock”. And they didn’t even mock Obama’s vision – they mocked the Dems’ set design and job titles. ---
**Author:** ![Huerta88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/82dd89/32.png) [@Huerta88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Huerta88)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2008, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-rnc-sarah-palin-speech-thread/461931/252 "2008-09-05T15:31:16Z")
> [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](#): > > His community organizing work had nothing to do with politics. > [This](http://www.dcpincorp.org/) is the organization that Obama worked for. It’s called the Developing Communities Project, and it was a faith based organization – a coalition of local churches – focused on a offering a number of different kinds of support on the south side of Chicago. Obama was hired there after the closing of a steel mill on the south side had thrown a lot of people of work and out of their homes. He worked specifically on job training, education, housing support, tenants’ rights and other advocacy issues of that nature. There was nothing self-promoting or political about it. He worked for a network of churches tring to help neighborhoods get back on their feet after massive layoffs. I could quibble with your implication that “advocacy” can’t verge into politics, given that it often does, but in any event, why not play up the relatively benign (non-race-hustling) nature of his “organizing” and make utterly clear that “organizer” is not, in his case, properly read as a code-word for “Sharpton?” ---
**Author:** ![Shayna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shayna/32/17976_2.png) [@Shayna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shayna)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2008, 3:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-rnc-sarah-palin-speech-thread/461931/253 "2008-09-05T15:38:18Z")
> [@Huerta88](#): > > I don’t know enough about what, specifically, he was organizing to opine, but I suspect it had some political aspect (registering voters?) but was nothing as brazenly unhelpful and opportunistic as a Sharpton. Since you’re voting in this election, don’t you think it’s incumbent upon you to, you know, investigate the facts and learn about the candidates? [Obama Writes a Chapter on Community Organizing](http://www.edwoj.com/Alinsky/AlinskyObamaChapter1990.htm). > [@](#): > > . . . > > In theory, community organizing provides a way to merge various strategies for neighborhood empowerment. Organizing begins with the premise that (1) the problems facing inner-city communities do not result from a lack of effective solutions, but from a lack of power to implement these solutions; (2) that the only way for communities to build long-term power is by organizing people and money around a common vision; and (3) that a viable organization can only be achieved if a broadly based indigenous leadership — and not one or two charismatic leaders — can knit together the diverse interests of their local institutions. > > This means bringing together churches, block clubs, parent groups and any other institutions in a given community to pay dues, hire organizers, conduct research, develop leadership, hold rallies and education cam paigns, and begin drawing up plans on a whole range of issues — jobs, education, crime, etc. Once such a vehicle is formed, it holds the power to make politicians, agencies and corporations more responsive to commu nity needs. Equally important, it enables people to break their crippling isolation from each other, to reshape their mutual values and expectations and rediscover the possibilities of acting collaboratively — the prerequi sites of any successful self-help initiative. > > By using this approach, the Developing Communities Project and other organizations in Chicago’s inner city have achieved some impressive results. **Schools have been made more accountable-Job training programs have been established; housing has been renovated and built; city services have been provided; parks have been refurbished; and crime and drug problems have been curtailed. Additionally, plain folk have been able to access the levers of power, and a sophisticated pool of local civic leadership has been developed.** > > . . . > [@Huerta88](#): > > If I were BHO, I’d address this head on and stop using the phrase – get specific about what you were doing during those years. There’s nothing wrong with the phrase. It was his JOB title. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2008, 3:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-rnc-sarah-palin-speech-thread/461931/254 "2008-09-05T15:43:22Z")
> [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](#): > > …By the way, I’m sick of hearing her stupid “hockey mom” meme. Hockey moms are upper middle class, not salt of the earth. Hockey is expensive. That shit is for rich kids. That depends on one’s Mom. Take a quick gander at what this hockey Mom can do! Rather an impressive sports venue for a village, wouldn’t you say? [http://alaskarama.com/musc/](http://alaskarama.com/musc/) ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2008, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-rnc-sarah-palin-speech-thread/461931/255 "2008-09-05T15:50:45Z")
> [@Huerta88](#): > > I could quibble with your implication that “advocacy” can’t verge into politics, given that it often does That would be a fatuous and tendentious quibble. My wife has done advocay work as a social worker. I think you’re getting too grandiose a picture of the word “advocacy.” It’s not giving speeches. It’s trying to form working relationships with landlords, employers, etc. for mutual benefit. I involves diplomacy and “politics” in a non-political sense of the word, but it does not onvolve marching down the street with a megaphone. > [@](#): > > but in any event, why not play up the relatively benign (non-race-hustling) nature of his “organizing” and make utterly clear that “organizer” is not, in his case, properly read as a code-word for “Sharpton?” “Relatively benign?” WTF does that mean? Why qualify it like that? It’s not benign “relatively.” It’s actively good. And why did you put “organizing” in scare quotes? I didn’t “organize” after school programs. I fucking _organized_ them. Why be so gratuitously insulting like that? I don’t understand your overall question? What is a “race hustler” and what the hell does it have to do with community organizing? Why would anybody automatically equate community organizing to Sharpton? What the hell do you think community organizations are? Is ACORN a “race hustling?” Habitat for Humanity? The Christian Coalition? Neighborhood Watch groups? Are you seriously contending that it’s Obama’s fault if people make racist assumptions about his CO work and that he should actually say the words, “I wasn’t a race hustler?” ---
**Author:** ![Huerta88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/82dd89/32.png) [@Huerta88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Huerta88)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2008, 3:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-rnc-sarah-palin-speech-thread/461931/256 "2008-09-05T15:58:44Z")
> [@Shayna](#): > > There’s nothing wrong with the phrase. It was his JOB title. Apparently some people find it nebulous and are willing to make the jump from nebulous to meaningless to do-nothing-job to agitator-job. Here, let me identify several levels of ambiguity in the job title. Does it imply that he is organizing the community, itself, from the ground up? Well that sounds pretty grandiose. And to a conservative ear, grating, as conservatives tend to think communities (if they even use this phrase – it has a little of the it-takes-a-village socialist taint to it) self-organize. I actually do not think that this usage is what was intended, but it’s not clear. Does the title, instead, refer to organizing specific activities **within** a community? That’s probably closer to what he did. But again, it’s not clear from the job title. And if it was particular activities he was focusing on “organizing,” why not identify those, as opposed to adding the unhelpful modifier that he was doing them in a “community” (as opposed to what? An unpopulated wasteland that had housing or employment problems? Where else would you organize a job bank or soup kitchen?). There are a lot of people in the “helping professions” who are doing substantive, laudable work. And there are some (most sociologists as far as I can tell; Al Sharpton; etc.) who are adding nothing useful to the equation, getting money for nothing (if not chicks for free). BHO needs (my free advice) to make clear that he was not one of the latter. If this job description is a stumbling block, use a slightly different one. ---
**Author:** ![Hentor\_the\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/8edcca/32.png) [@Hentor\_the\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hentor_the_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2008, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-rnc-sarah-palin-speech-thread/461931/257 "2008-09-05T16:04:54Z")
I will not concern-troll this, but will put it out there straight: I very much hope that the right continues to attack “community organization”. It’s such a huge mistake because it alienates a whole bunch of groups that might otherwise lean conservative. For example, those famed “faith-based organizations” tend to be faith-based community organizations. To quote the leader, “Bring it on!” ---
**Author:** ![Huerta88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/82dd89/32.png) [@Huerta88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Huerta88)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2008, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-rnc-sarah-palin-speech-thread/461931/258 "2008-09-05T16:05:39Z")
> [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](#): > > “Relatively benign?” WTF does that mean? Why qualify it like that? It’s not benign “relatively.” It’s actively good. I put relatively because tenant advocacy (one of the things you mentioned) sometimes morphs (in jurisdictions with what I consider to be overly tenant-friendly laws) into landlord-bashing and assisting tenants in evading contractual duties they agreed to. > [@](#): > > And why did you put “organizing” in scare quotes? I didn’t “organize” after school programs. I fucking _organized_ them. Why be so gratuitously insulting like that? I put it in quotes because the phrase itself, as a phrase, is under examination/attack. I don’t doubt you and BHO did actual on-the-ground organizing that had tangible results. > [@](#): > > I don’t understand your overall question? What is a “race hustler” A person who makes a career out of stoking racial grievance. Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton are two good examples. > [@](#): > > and what the hell does it have to do with community organizing? Why would anybody automatically equate community organizing to Sharpton? What the hell do you think community organizations are? Is ACORN a “race hustling?” Habitat for Humanity? The Christian Coalition? Neighborhood Watch groups? Are you seriously contending that it’s Obama’s fault if people make racist assumptions about his CO work and that he should actually say the words, “I wasn’t a race hustler?” Racial grievance mongers have in the past presented themselves or been presented as “community leaders.” BHO has done a good job presenting himself as post-racial. It’s my speculation that part of what inspired the Palin crack was the hope that it would be a freebie opportunity to suggest that BHO was just like the other ministers-without-portfolio who trotted around with no discernible duties except making trouble griping about racism. AFAICT, that is a substantially inaccurate portrayal. It is my thesis (YMMV) that it is the nebulousness of “community organizer” (as I discuss upthread) that allows (what I think is) this unwarranted implication. ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2008, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-rnc-sarah-palin-speech-thread/461931/259 "2008-09-05T16:18:32Z")
> [@Huerta88](#): > > Apparently some people find it nebulous and are willing to make the jump from nebulous to meaningless to do-nothing-job to agitator-job. > > Here, let me identify several levels of ambiguity in the job title. > > Does it imply that he is organizing the community, itself, from the ground up? Well that sounds pretty grandiose. And to a conservative ear, grating, as conservatives tend to think communities (if they even use this phrase – it has a little of the it-takes-a-village socialist taint to it) self-organize. I actually do not think that this usage is what was intended, but it’s not clear. > > Does the title, instead, refer to organizing specific activities **within** a community? That’s probably closer to what he did. But again, it’s not clear from the job title. And if it was particular activities he was focusing on “organizing,” why not identify those, as opposed to adding the unhelpful modifier that he was doing them in a “community” (as opposed to what? An unpopulated wasteland that had housing or employment problems? Where else would you organize a job bank or soup kitchen?). > > There are a lot of people in the “helping professions” who are doing substantive, laudable work. And there are some (most sociologists as far as I can tell; Al Sharpton; etc.) who are adding nothing useful to the equation, getting money for nothing (if not chicks for free). BHO needs (my free advice) to make clear that he was not one of the latter. If this job description is a stumbling block, use a slightly different one. A community organizer is someone who leads a community organization. It’s as simple as it sounds. I don’t know what kind of title would be any better. It is what it is. A community organization is just what it sounds like – an organization formed by a community to accheive a common goal. A neighborhood watch group is a community organization. So is the PTA. So is a bunch of neighbors getting together and building a playground. The specific duties or actions of the organizers (those who form and/or take leadership in the organizations) are dependent on the goal of the organization. Many organizations, such as the one Barack Obama worked for, are formed by local churches. They build soup kichens, detox centers, women’s shelters, and the like. I specifically had a job starting up and running a number of after-school programs and summer day camps. I wasn’t a goddamn race hustler. I played football with inner city kids, tutored them with homework, took them to the goddamn Science Museum, gave meals to kids who weren’t getting them at home. I don’t know what the fuck you think Al Sharpton has to do with community organizing, or why you think Obama should have to distance himself. Sharpton is a political activist, not a community organizer. In point of fact, though, Obama has explained repeatedly and in detail what his job as a community organizer entailed. It’s in his books, on his website, in his speeches. What else is he supposed to do? He can’t force the media to explain it for him. I guarantee, Rudy Guiliani knows what community organizers do. His belittlement was intentionally pitched at people he was counting on to be ignorant. ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2008, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-rnc-sarah-palin-speech-thread/461931/260 "2008-09-05T16:26:08Z")
After reading **Huert’s** posts, I now think think the RNC shots at community organizers were intended to play implicitly right to the kind of racist assumptions that Huert is talking about. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-rnc-sarah-palin-speech-thread/461931.md?page=12) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-rnc-sarah-palin-speech-thread/461931.md?page=14)