Community Organizing: A Noble Profession

Via Oliver Willis. Perhaps I'm just a sap, but that video kinda got to me. I was actually most stuck by Biden's "last chance" remarks and I thought that their entrance into the video was just at the right time.

Willis also links to a great article in the Los Angeles Times by Richard Fausset. Fausset's article is an in-depth look into the profession of community organizing. The article is extremely well written and it gives you a better sense of what it is that a community organizer actually does. In stark contrast to the perspective taken by Sarah Palin and Rudy Giuliani, community organizers actually have many responsibilities and far fewer resources to go about them than mayors. This article is a must read for anyone interested in social change.

Two Items

I'd like to call my dear readers attention to two articles that I think are well worth a read. The first is by Alan Wolfe, a noted political scientist at Boston College. Wolfe's article dissects why McCain essentially has to lie in order to sell his candidacy. The key graf:

The current lie du jour of the McCain campaign is that their man will aggressively take on the greed that is causing the collapse on Wall Street. Given McCain's lack of interest in the economy, wealthy campaign contributors, and ideological hostility toward government regulation, this stance is laughable. But McCain's lie unconsciously reveals an important truth, which is that when the economy goes into a tailspin, the public prefers a solution long identified with liberalism. McCain could tell the truth, which is that he is all for the free market and can barely wait until the crisis passes so the rich can go about the business of becoming ever richer. But if he does that, he will lose. McCain wants to win. Therefore he lies.

The second article is over at the American Prospect and is written by Matt Yglesias. Yglesias argues that it would be prudent for Barack Obama to once again highlight his foreign policy and national security bonafides. He focuses on the fact that the president has a lot more control over foreign policy matters than he/she does over domestic issues. Indeed, no matter the outcome of the presidential election, the Democratic majority is certain to expand. This majority will be able to hinder many of the more undesirable elements of McCain's domestic agenda. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said on the foreign policy front. Here, McCain will have the ability to send troops wherever he pleases, with little to no intervention from Congress. This is disturbing since the McCain foreign policy platform makes the international policies of the Bush administration look tame.