Obama responds to Sarah Palin's nasty attacks

Palin remarked, "I guess a small-town mayor is sort of like a community organizer, except that you have actual responsibilities."

Now I'm all for upholding the dignity of small-town mayors and acknowledging the responsibilities they shoulder. And certainly we need to more of a town hall forum dynamic within government on a national scale if ordinary people are to have any access to counter the influence of corporate lobbyists.

But it's just wrong to dis community organizers. More than that, it's politically stupid to belittle community organizers when you are trying to portray yourself as an insurgent candidate seeking to overthrow the Washington elite.

So let's start with one obvious way in which community organizers make a difference. They register new voters. In 1992, a record 150,000 new voters were added to the rolls in Chicago owing in large measure to a grassroots effort led by Project Vote. A January 1993 analysis by Chicago magazine on the local director of Project Vote concluded, "A huge black turnout in November 1992 altered Chicago's electoral landscape -- and raised a new political star: a 31-year-old lawyer named Barack Obama."

And community organizers...empower people to express their needs and concerns, not just as individuals but as a more powerful collective of diverse but coordinated souls. This means that community organizers must also be skilled at communication, negotiation, and compromise -- traits required of any good leader.

I can't say what possessed Palin to dis community organizers. I hope she understands that most Americans are not on a first-name basis with their mayor. I hope she understands that most Americans cannot and should not expect to get a check from their state government because corporations are making billions by extracting nonrenewable resources. I hope she understands that there are millions of Americans living in places like the South Side of Chicago, inner-city Detroit, and small towns across America whose lives and communities have been devastated by deindustrialization, environmental degradation, the war on drugs, the collapse of public school systems, and so on.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/scott-kurashige/dont-dis-community-organi_b_124...
Obama's State Senate legislative record...US Senate record...sponsorship of 820 laws in Illinois, and authorship of 152 bills and co-sponsorship of 427 in Washington. The 2007 Ethics Reform bill alone cannot be dismissed as simply non-existent.
http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2008/09/palin-on-obama.h...
I couldn't agree more about the nastiness. What we saw last night was the mainstreaming of Ann Coulter, the normalization of the principle that it isn't bile when it's spoken by a pretty woman. Coulter has gloated, "I am emboldened by my looks to say things Republican men wouldn't." And even though the Post reports today that Palin's was a "masculine" speech—written before the final candidate was selected—it bore so very many hallmarks of a vintage Coulter/Ingraham performance. Susan Estrich describes the Coulter approach as a play "to the lowest common denominator of derision, labeling the hero a coward, her opponent a traitor ... she is about suspicion and exclusion," and anyone who pushes back is a member of the "liberal media elite" and a sexist.
http://www.slate.com/blogs/blogs/xxfactor/archive/2008/09/04/mainstreaming-th...
But what an unbelievably vicious speech! The nastiness level was just sky-high (or gutter low). And though Palin certainly didn't write the words she spoke, she sure looked like she enjoyed every second of delivering those zingers. That speech wasn't meant to inspire—it wasn't about our better selves or what we might be able to accomplish, as a nation—it was all about rage, sarcasm, resentment, mockery. And the crowd just lapped it up.
http://www.slate.com/blogs/blogs/xxfactor/archive/2008/09/04/i-m-depressed-no...

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[lye54]

Those who voted for Sarah confirmed the study that a large chunk of ordinary Americans are ignorant, plain stupid or too blinded by right wing tendencies to think clearly.

[p3snooper]

"But listening to him speak...."

You shallow, dumb, mindless bitch. Listening to YOU speak we realize that you can't even compose a cogent, cohesive, complete sentence. Hell, you probably don't even know what those words mean.

And you think you're presidential material?

You're not fit to clean toilets.

Go back to Alaska and shoot a moose.

[Booyaka009]

If obama was white palin would have fuck all supporters, only the rascists support her.

[darharrison]

My IQ is 53 above Palin and I'm 15. I should rule the world.

[lovecraftis1]

Palin is a joke & will always be one.

[MobeenAftab]

im commander sheppered and sarah palin is my favourite stupid bitch in the citidel.

[waypasthadenough]

• It is not enough to say "Vote Ron Paul"

If you do not SWITCH PARTIES in time, 12 weeks in advance OF THE PRIMARIES IN MOST STATES (starting Late January 2012) your vote does not count! If you are not REGISTERED REPUBLICAN you can not vote Ron Paul in the PRIMARY If Ron Paul does not win the PRIMARY, he has no chance to win the election. Be the "Trojan Horse" be the "mole", infiltrate the system. FIND OUT when your state has its primaries.

Copy and paste this everywhere.

[waypasthadenough]

If you sit home waiting your turn you deserve to have your gun taken from your cold dead hands.

The Founders didn’t wait for the Brits to knock down their doors. They gathered at the green and stood up like men and they killed government employees all the way back to Boston.

What will you do when it’s time to hunt NWO hacks, republicrats and commies(“Liberals” and ‘progressives’)?

Don't understand? Follow my links. Read the quotes page first. Then read my column ‘Prepping for Slavery’

[5nickeldoor5]

Nothing but a con man. He cares about nothing but himself. What people don't realize is that Soros cause the market fall just before the election. Soros bet 1 billion that the USA was going to lose it's credit rating. He made 10,000.000.000 on it. The american public was con by a conman. Obama was not vetted. They lie so much in this video.Obummer normally likes to be the only candidate on the ballot. He loved egypt why doesn't he go there and become king. Obama dislikes america.

[jsmythib]

k- Its all coming apart...It moves like a glacier tho...While people bicker over highlighted individuals maybe learning to take care of ourselves might be a good idea.

[brian4480]

Ya, its need someone who quits his/her post........the dumb whore needs to die in a fire.

[blinkie7]

Still, we don't know anything about him.