Worse, they show what a fake outrage the "attack on community organizers" screaming is. Because while on the one hand they are upset that Sarah "denigrated" the work of community organizers (which of course she did not do, she simply said that people whose previous job was "community organizer" shouldn't denigrate the job of mayor like Barack Obama and other Democrats did.
See, Sarah Palin, before she was mayor (an elected position with executive responsibility), she was also the head of the local PTA -- another position with executive responsibility.
And as DailyKos notes, the head of the local PTA IS a type of community organizer. Not the kind that Barack was, agitating for left-wing political politics, but one that serves the community in a non-partisan fashion, the kind of non-partisanship that McCain has demonstrated, that Palin has demonstrated, and that Barack Obama only pretends to care about.
From their revealing "Sarah Palin was a Community Organizer":
But she was a member of one of the oldest community organizations in the country. Like most community organizations, this one was founded to promote a cause, a cause that its founders felt was being largely ignored at the time. In 1897 when the National Congress of Mothers was formed by Alice McLellan Birney and Phoebe Apperson Hearst, women did not even have the right to vote. The organization these community organizers began on that cold February day in Washington, D.C., would grow from the 2,000 women in attendance then to more than 5 million members in 2007. John McCain has cited Palin's membership in this organization as part of her qualifications to be Vice President.
...
So when Sarah Palin proudly mentions her PTA membership, she is acknowledging the work of community organizers and building upon that work by contributing to the efforts of the organization.
The diarist then delivers a stinging indictment of Barack Obama, although being a left-winger she has no clue she is doing so:
When politicians denigrate community organizers and community organizations, they are really avoiding an admission of failure on their part. Community organizations arise as a result of unresponsive government and social institutions. They form as a response to a need within the community that is not being met.
So, when Barack Obama attacked Palin for "just being a mayor", not only was he denigrating the serious "community organizer" aspect of a mayor's job, he also ignored her job as the head of the PTA, a community organizer position with executive responsibility, moreso than his job in Chicago.
Of course, he also ignored her job as Governor. Barack has a history of ignoring things that don't fit into his world view. I'd put up Sarah Palin's time as head of the PTA against Barack Obama's "community agitator" position when it comes to having qualification to be President.
The simple fact is that, even at the level of the PTA, people around Sarah Palin recognized her leadership capability, and put her in charge. And even at the level of "community organizer", nobody really saw Barack Obama as the person to lead the group.
This episode shows a hypocrisy of the left, and the problem with having a left-wing media -- not one that overtly plays politics, but one whose world-view is so much in tune with their left-wing politics that they play the double-standard without noticing.
So, when Barack Obama makes fun of the name of Palin's home town (calling it "Wasilly" instead of "Wasilla"), not one in the media notes that either he is doing so, or asks why he can't get the name right (and we know they notice -- remember when Allen couldn't get a guy's name right?).
And when Barack Obama makes fun of the job of small-town mayor, not one asks any other small-town mayors if they feel put-out by Obama's dismissal of the hard work they do. I'd be interested in hearing what Occoquan Mayor Earnie Porta feels about Barack Obama's attack on him, but frankly I think Porta is too busy doing his job to have time to get outraged.
Plus Earnie is a good, smart man who I'm sure understands that Obama wasn't really attacking all mayors, just making a crass political comment about ONE mayor. Just as I'm sure he and all these people with the fake outrage know that Sarah Palin wasn't denigrating community service, just ridiculing the idea that Obama is ready to be President because of his hard work as a community organizer, work that even he admits he can't really explain.
The simple fact is that, when a person has leadership abilities, those around them recognize that ability. Sarah Palin was not just in the PTA, she was the head. She ran for council, but then was recognized and voted in as the leader of the town as Mayor. Then she was appointed to a state commission, and shortly after was recognized and promoted to be the leader as Governor of Alaska.
Obama was a community organizer but never made the leader of ACORN. Then he was in the state senate but never given a leadership position. He went to the U.S. senate and wasn't given any leadership positions (except for a minor subcommitee that never met).
For a comparison, look at Senator Jim Webb. Read the news articles about him, and you will see that he was a real leader for the one thing he really cared about -- his military reform bill. Everybody who speaks of Webb notes his leadership qualities, and the Senate Leadership actually put Webb out front on military matters, even though he's only been their 2 years.
So the Democrats in the Senate know who real leaders are -- and it isn't Barack Obama. And the people of Alaska know who true leaders are -- and it is Governor Sarah Palin.
3 comments:
don't we feel a little silly when we're citing PTA presidencies as a compelling cred for being President of the United States of America? Sure, sure, Obama's resume is pretty flimsy too. But surely this is the first election cycle in the history of the Republic where anyone has felt forced to argue that PTA leadership makes one ready for the White House. Aren't we a little bit embarrassed? Shouldn't we just argue that John McCain is eminently well qualified and very, very healthy?
The point isn't that being head of the PTA qualifies one for being President.
It's that, if the left wants to argue that community organizing is a qualification for President, even in THAT category Palin is more qualified than Obama.
Even in my weekly column, I didn't argue directly about whether Palin was qualified enough. Who knows what really makes one "qualified"?
But it is easy to compare Palin and Obama, and see that Palin is certainly more qualified than Obama for the job.
And of course, the Obama campaign has focused on Palin because they know it is futile to compare their candidate to John McCain.
Great posts. This is one of the better posts regarding the "organizing" aspect that the campaign rhetoric has taken.
Personally I am not embarrassed at all about the PTA qualification in the context of a record of achievement, especially when you conisder its nature of nuetrality with regard to politics. The issue I find striking is we actually think in America that being in Congress is somehow hard work. Give me a staff of twenty and tell me where I need to be and provide a means to get there and what I need to say in front of the camera or how I need to cast my vote and call it a day frankly.
People in small towns all across this nation deal with harder jobs for a lot less money and deal with alot more real issues than those in Congress. Any small business person who runs a business in this nation is more qualified than many of the baffons in Washington from an executive standpoint.
After all a disportinate number of Congressman are after all "lawyers", yikes.
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