Mayors and Organizers

Glenn Reynolds: "JIM LINDGREN -- WHO LOVES HIM SOME NUMBERS -- DOES AN ANALYSIS and concludes that in spite of the press treatment, Obama's speech included more negative attacks than Palin's."

Here's Lindgren's Obama count, and here are his numbers on Palin's speech. He concludes "If one compares Palin’s speech to Obama’s, it appears to me that they used similar amounts of sarcasm (not much), but Obama made considerably more extensive negative comments about McCain and Republican administrations than Palin did about Obama and Democrats."

We should pause here to acknowledge the official Obama campaign response to the Palin speech: "McCain is Bush" - and note that much of what follows is not part of the official Obama campaign response.

But it is important to recall that Palin's most quoted line "I guess a small-town mayor is sort of like a "community organizer," except that you have actual responsibilities" is actually not an attack, but a direct response sparked by the official Obama campaign response to McCain's original announcement of his Veep choice: "Today, John McCain put the former mayor of a town of 9,000 with zero foreign policy experience a heartbeat away from the presidency".

I score that one a tie, 1 to 1. Can we get on with a discussion of the issues now?

No. Here's a new bumper sticker, coming soon: Jesus was a community organizer. Pilate was a governor. Do Obama supporters really want to reinforce that "Messiah" thing? Given the known answer to the "do they really want to emphasize the experience issue?" question, I'm going to guess "yes". After all, if anyone points out the messianic aspects of the Obama campaign, the accused can respond by accusing the accusers of shouting antichrist...

And so on, and so on, and so on....

Can we ever get around to issues? Well, maybe - here's how. Time Magazine has already done an article detailing Palin's time as mayor of Wasilla, Alaska. (Short version: no one liked her, she did what she wanted, not what they wanted, and got re-elected "by a landslide".) Now they can do a piece on Obama's time as a "community organizer". They can tell Americans exactly what it is that Community Organizers do, who pays their salaries (or how they get money for food), etc. etc. Then they can turn to Obama specifically. What were his goals? What did he accomplish? Are there any before and after pictures of the communities he organized? Are there folks available for interview whose lives were improved by his efforts? Are they proud to see where he is today? How do they expect their lives to change if he becomes President?

If the candidate is willing to participate, they could get a heck of a cover shot, Obama in the streets he knew so well, surrounded by those whose lives he touched those many years ago. Who wouldn't drop the cash for a magazine story detailing Obama's career as a Community Organizer? (Here are some starting points, if you're interested.)

Not only would that sell, it would finally put to rest these sorts of claims from an Instapundit emailer (I added the hyperlink in the quote below, by the way):

My casual discussions with ladies around the hospital where I work indicates that they have never heard of ACORN and have never heard of Bill Ayers. I suspect that they don't know anymore about Tony Rezko either. But everyone seems to know about Bristol Palin's fiance.

Has there ever been a time in the history of our presidential politics where the press has so willfully chosen to do what they can to elect a specific candidate to the presidency?