q. How is community organizing relevant for the presidency?
Obama:
This is very curious. They havent talked about the fact that I was a civil rights lawyer, or taught constitutional law, my work in the state legislature, or US Senate, they focused on this 3 years where i worked as a community organizer, right out of college. As if im make the leap from 2-3 years out of college to the presidency.
I would argue that doing work in the community, try and create jobs, rejuvenate the communities that have fallen on hard times, bring ppl together, setup job training programs in areas that have been hard hit where the steel plants have closed. That’s relevant only in understanding where im coming from, who i believe in, who im fighting for and why im in this race.
The question I have for them is
Why would that kind of work be ridiculous? Who are they fighting for? What are they advocating for?
Do they think that the lives of those folks struggling each and every day, that working with to try and improve their lives is somehow not relevant to the presidency.
I think that is part of the problem, that they are out of touch and dont get it because they havent spent much time working on behalf of those folks.