In her speech before the Republican National Convention, Sarah Palin delivered a zinger to the Obama forces. She said, "I guess a small-town mayor is sort of like a ‘community organizer,’ except that you have actual responsibilities."
That night, Obama campaign manager David Plouffe came to the defense of his boss. He said, quite accurately, that community organizing is the foundation of the civil rights movement, the women’s suffrage movement, and labor rights.
But the defense also identified Obama with civil disobedience and rebellion associated with the American protest movement. This defense was perfect in the 1960s. Today it doesn’t fly with voters in many parts of America such as central Pennsylvania and upper Michigan.
The next day Obama quickly jumped to his own defense. He appeared before the news cameras to comment on the great blessings of community organizing. Obama noted that GOP people "think that the lives of those folks who are struggling each and every day, that working with them to try to improve their lives is somehow not relevant to the presidency? I think maybe that’s the problem — that’s part of why they’re out of touch and they don’t get it, because they haven’t spent much time working on behalf of those folks."
No question that Obama’s time spent as a community organizer was most admirable and valuable to the citizens of Chicago. He helped people who needed help. There is no criticizing this noble work.
But in coming to the defense of community organizing, the Obama campaign continues to overlook the current negative perceptions of millions of voters. And often these are the very voters urgently required for Obama’s success in many key battleground states.
Few people know what a community organizer does. Many working-class whites and voters in rural areas have the impression that the expression refers to agitators, protesters, or rebellious people who are dissatisfied with the American way of life. When they hear the term community organizer, many Americans think of unpopular figures such as the Reverends Al Sharpton or Jesse Jackson. In appealing to white voters in Ohio or Missouri, the last thing Obama wants is to be identified with opposition voices whom many whites consider to be radical or unpatriotic.
This Monday a three-man panel of Democratic pundits on liberal-leaning MSNBC all agreed that the continued use of the phrase community organizer continues to offer the perception of "rabble-rousers or urban troublemakers." Today a Democratic Congressman, speaking on the floor of the House compared Obama's work as a community organizer to the work of Jesus Christ. Consider the reaction to that statement in rural areas of the Midwest or South where Obama is trying to attract votes.
There is nothing Obama can do if the Republicans effectively use the expression against Obama. But Obama simply adds fuel to the fire by continuing to refer to his days as a community organizer.
For more political strategies associated with the 2008 presidential election, go to ObamaElectionWatch.com