Community Organizing: It's legit, yo!

A lot was made last night of Barack Obama's extensive experience as a community organizer. Some of the best jabs from Sarah Palin, Rudy Guliani, and the cast ripped into this experience, which he uses as a backbone to his candidacy.

We should be fair to Obama, though, and take a look into what he's doing. After all, two wrongs don't make a right, so let's take the high road. Here are some links to help you understand what exactly the job entailed.

Wikipedia-
Here is the wikipedia definition of "Community Organizer." Kids, don't use wikipedia as a source on your next report. It can be valuable to give a little background information, though.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Community_organizing

From what I read, a couple things pop out to me:
1) The people organized have self-interest. Not much in the way of opposition if you're organizing people with self-interest.
2) It's helping people...with an agenda. I only wish this blog was established so I could read a statement from Obama saying such implications prove Wikipedia is biased.

Salary Data-
I figured I'd check and see if "Community Organizer" was a valid job description. Also, numbers never hurt.
http://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_nat.htm

Two job titles come close to Community Organizer. One is 11-9151, Social and Community Service Managers. The other is 21-1099, Community and Social Service Specialists, All Others.

Option 1 can't be it, as a Social and Community Service Manager implies no agenda. Thus, Barack Obama's official position was other. Not totally substantive, but interesting nonetheless.

I compare it to the garbage man who calls himself a sanitation engineer.

Specific Information-
Let's check in with a liberal source for a clearer definition of what he did.
http://dallasmorningviewsblog.dallasnews.com/archives/2008/09/why-do-republic.html

I'm not sure whether Landauer thinks he's making some valid points, but it doesn't matter. The details are what is important. More to come after the last link.

Huffington Nonsense-
Because lunacy can be fun to read:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/09/04/shorter-rnc-day-three-dea_n_123798.html

In the usual liberal style, we see the effects of the logical fallacy. Extra points to the reader who identifies which fallacy it is. How ridiculous to assume that discounting community organizing's credibility in a presidential election is eliminating all of it's worth to society.

Herein lies the crux of the matter; Obama's experience as a Community Organizer is great. he did a wonderful job. Three things are in question, though. Let's go through the questions.

1) Is it applicable?
Obama could have had a wonderful few years as the best salesman down at the local ice cream shop. It's a valuable job, as we all need our delicious ice cream, but it's simply not relevant. The opposite would be some sort of actual executive experience, like being a governor. Community Organization lies somewhere between, despite Obama's campaign telling you otherwise.

2) Does it show ability?
To say no would be crude, overly biased, and wrong. He obviously had some talent, even that which compares to the talents needed for presidency. Again, though, don't let the Obama campaign fool you, though. It's not that tough. I served with a group of people who did similar things in a community service organization. At this point, none of us from that board are qualified to be president. Which brings us to question 3...

3) What else is there?
His organizing exploits would look a lot better if accompanied by actual experience. Come back in 10 or 20 years with some legislation written, some risks taken, and something to back up the organizing. For now, it's far too little.

I give Obama credit for finding a way to get paid doing what I volunteered to do. It does not qualify him for president. It makes him an active, beneficial member of society. That part is an example we can all follow.