Marshall Ganz on the Future of the Obama Movement

Micah Sifry interviews Marshall Ganz, architect of the Obama organizing strategy, on the plans for the future. This interview was recorded on November 17, 2008.

"We don't have much precedent of sitting presidents leading social movements," Ganz says. "We have no mechanism of participation and accountability," for grassroots movements connected to a president. He adds, "It could become a network of some kind, it could become an organization. If it became an organization, something like Campaign for a New America, we have to look at questions of finance and governance, as to how to enable something like that to work. But there's a foundation out there that didn't exist before, and it's not going to go away."

"Folks are meeting in Chicago right now, trying to come up with some proposals--leadership from the organizing side."

Asked why is this a closed process, Ganz says, "That's a good question. I don't know. It ought to be an open process and I think that's been one of the challenges for the campaign all along. But it's only as closed as you let it be. I think it's important to create the public space for this kind of discussion."

"People are all so used to thinking, a lot of groups and organizations are sort of saying, 'Who's going to get the list? Who's going to get the list? They sort of think of 1.5 million names, who's going to get it? You can transfer a list, but you can't transfer people that way. That's what's out there, is people. Over the next few weeks, months, there's going to be some working through this. It's very important what Obama decides. Whether to try to support some kind of organized effort, that's rooted in the campaign, or not."

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[Court13International]

interviewer needs to shut up and let the man talk

[jromanico]

GOOGLE: Obama's Bowel Movements.

Hilarious!!!

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