(now that I have your attention with a purposefully provocative title...)

Obama was a community organizer twenty three years ago--when he was fresh out of college.

He went to work in some of the most economically and politically disadvantaged communities in Chicago to help individuals improve their lives. He worked on enviornmental health issues; employment training; public housing; school reform; and more. He worked with churches and private citizens and he helped give a voice to historically powerless groups. He was engaged in bottom-up organizing, the true essence of what we call democracy.

For a party that has "service" as the theme of one of their convention nights and for a party that believes that people should help themselves rather than expect the government to do it for them, it is absolutely astonishing that the Republicans would demean community organizing.

It is also astonishing that they have to go back to Obama's early career to mock. They didn't mock anything he has done since: lawyer; professor; executive director, board of directors, and /or founder of several non-profits (Public Allies; Anneberg Challenge; Joyce Foundation; Woods Fund; etc.); state Senator; U.S. senator and more. Nope, they have to mock the altruism he did when he was in his early twenties.

Good job Republicans. To paraphrase John Stewart, yeah community organizers, fuck you.

Funny, Palin's husband's DUII twenty years ago is fair game, though. Oh, yeah, I forgot that he's not actually RUNNING FOR THE PRESIDENCY! Obama is though, right?

conservativebynature, you need to learn to distinguish between what the blogs say and what the candidates say. I never heard Obama or Biden talk about the DUI. I did hear Palin denigrate Obama's work as a community organizer, and community organizing in general.

Funny Michelle Obama's senior thesis in college is also fair game.

You had a point?