Obama’s Community Organizing

Posted on September 4, 2008 in Campaign 2008

You heard community organizing being bashed last night. Here is what it meant in Obama’s case according to the Dallas Morning News:

Now, the truth is that, starting at age 23, Obama ran a faith-based charity called the Developing Communities Project.

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….

And keep in mind the timeline here: Obama did this as a young man BEFORE going to law school, becoming a successful lawyer and a law professor.

Everyone who has ever been an organizer or a volunteer at any level in any community organization ought to take offense at Sarah Palin’s remarks which pour urine all over the 1000 points of light.

[tags]Campaign 2008, Barack Obama, Obama, volunteers, volunteering, community organizing, community organizers[/tags]