ACORN: Fighting back

Shortly after the Republican convention, more than a month ago now, Tim took umbrage with some of Sarah Palin's words:

On Wednesday night at the Republican Convention, Vice-Presidential nominee Sarah Palin delivered the following barb against Democratic Presidential nominee Barak Obama:

“I guess a small-town mayor is sort of like a community organizer, except that you have actual responsibilities.”

Over at Swampland, Joe Klein has some information Governor Palin might have considered before deciding to use that line:

This morning, I received a press release from a group called Catholic Democrats about the work--the mission, the witness--that Obama performed after he got out of college. Here's the first paragraph: 

Catholic Democrats is expressing surprise and shock that Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin's acceptance speech tonight mocked her opponent's work in the 1980s for the Catholic Campaign for Human Development. She belittled Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama's experience as a community organizer in Catholic parishes on the South Side of Chicago, work he undertook instead of pursuing a lucrative career on Wall Street. In her acceptance speech, Ms. Palin said, "I guess a small-town mayor is sort of like a community organizer, except that you have actual responsibilities." Community organizing is at the heart of Catholic Social Teaching to end poverty and promote social justice. 

So here is what Giuliani and Palin didn't know: Obama was working for a group of churches that were concerned about their parishioners, many of whom had been laid off when the steel mills closed on the south side of Chicago. They hired Obama to help those stunned people recover and get the services they needed--job training, help with housing and so forth--from the local government. It was, dare I say it, the Lord's work--the sort of mission Jesus preached (as opposed to the war in Iraq, which Palin described as a "task from God.")

Well... it does appear that God, at least the God of leftists, is busy these days:

A man at the center of a voter-registration scandal told The Post yesterday he was given cash and cigarettes by aggressive ACORN activists in exchange for registering an astonishing 72 times, in apparent violation of Ohio laws.

"Sometimes, they come up and bribe me with a cigarette, or they'll give me a dollar to sign up," said Freddie Johnson, 19, who filled out 72 separate voter-registration cards over an 18-month period at the behest of the left-leaning Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now.

"The ACORN people are everywhere, looking to sign people up. I tell them I am already registered. The girl said, 'You are?' I say, 'Yup,' and then they say, 'Can you just sign up again?' " he said.

Johnson used the same information on all of his registration cards, and officials say they usually catch and toss out duplicate registrations. But the practice sparks fear that some multiple registrants could provide different information and vote more than once by absentee ballot.

ACORN is under investigation in Ohio and at least eight other states - including Missouri, where the FBI said it's planning to look into potential voter fraud - for over-the-top efforts to get as many names as possible on the voter rolls regardless of whether a person is registered or eligible.

It's even under investigation in Bridgeport, Conn., for allegedly registering a 7-year-old girl to vote, according to the State Elections Enforcement Commission.

For those who don't know, ACORN stands for the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now.

And clearly... they're fighting back.

Comments

[tim aka The Godless Heathen]

So Obama dismisses Palin’s qualifications, since she was only a mayor of a small town in Alaska, then Palin defends herself and rightly compares her experience with Obama’s, or rather lack there of, and Palin is the one who is at fault ? I’ll take any mayor of any small town over some ‘community organizer’, thankyouverymuch.

Also, we know what Palin has accomplished as a Mayor and Governor and the overwhelming approval ratings she enjoys. But I’ve yet to see any evidence of Obama’s accomplishment or approval from the people he supposedly helped in Chicago. Strange how he prides himself for his ‘work’ but yet as nothing to show for it, nobody he ‘helped’ seems to want to come forward and explain what a marvelous job he did. Why would that be?

In the real world, where talk is cheap and ones accomplishments need to be transparent and easily verified, Obama would be considered a fraud. But yet in politics, on this election he’s some kind of savior, a bearer of hope & change. Well I’ll pass thanks. Hope never solved a problem and change isn’t always better.

How long before Obama says “This isn’t the ACORN I knew”?

[Tim Chesterton]

Last time I checked, Chicago wasn't in Ohio. And the Catholic Campaign for Human DEvelopment is not the ACORN. You can check what CCHD really does here.

Guilt by association again?

[Rick]

Tim,

With all due respect.

Palin's comments as to community organizers was in response to the Obama camp questioning her credentials. Your post (and specifically Joe Klein) then made this enormous leap of logic suggesting that all community organizers are doing the Lord's work and thus Sarah Palin was speaking against the Lord. There was also this complete false claim that Palin claimed that the Iraq war was a task from God... she did not as this blog has chronicled.

I realize facts are a real bitch for lefties and tend to get in the way of the 'truth' that they're espousing but all I wanted to do with this post is clearly make the point that Joe Klein's logic is flawed.

I think I've accomplished that mission.

With bells on.

[Tim Chesterton]

Rick:

Likewise, with all due respect:

Joe Klein said:
Obama was working for a group of churches that were concerned about their parishioners, many of whom had been laid off when the steel mills closed on the south side of Chicago. They hired Obama to help those stunned people recover and get the services they needed--job training, help with housing and so forth--from the local government. It was, dare I say it, the Lord's work--the sort of mission Jesus preached (as opposed to the war in Iraq, which Palin described as a "task from God.")

Joe Klein (at least in the piece you've quoted) did not say that 'all community organisers are doing the Lord's work'. In using that phrase, he was referring specifically to the work that Barak Obama did with CCHD in Chicago.

I think there may be a flaw in your logic after all!

[Rick]

I'll try this once more Tim.

Sarah Palin responds to criticism of her experience (or lack thereof) by comparing what she's done to what Obama has done, specifically pointing to what so many trumpet as Obama's selling point, his role as community organizer.

You and Joe Klein take umbrage, assuming that Palin's specific charge aimed at Obama is speaking ill of community organizers in general and asserts that they do the Lord's work unlike Palin who thinks war is the Lord's work (a complete twisting of what Palin actually said).

Summarizing:

Palin compares her experience to that of Obama by juxtaposing her stint as small town mayor to that of Barack's as community organizer.

You and Joe Klein attempt to smear Palin by comparing something she didn't say to the assertion that Obama was doing the Lord's work.

Clearly the reader is to conclude that Palin is something less than Godly while Obama is much more.

It's flawed logic, using flawed premises, drawing flawed conclusions.

I'll end by sending those who want to know more about Obama's 3 year stint as community organizer to this NRO piece which paints his work rather fairly but that concludes with these words:

When he left for law school, Obama wondered what he had accomplished as an organizer. He certainly had some achievements, but he did not — perhaps could not — concede that there might be something wrong with his approach to Chicago’s problems. Instead of questioning his own premises, he concluded that he simply needed more power to get the job done. So he made plans to run for political office. And in each successive office, he has concluded that he did not have enough power to get the job done, so now he is running for the most powerful office in the land.

And what if he gets it? He’ll be the biggest, strongest organizer in the world. He’ll dazzle the country with his message of hope and possibility. But we shouldn’t expect much to actually get done.