A Conversation with Senator Barack Obama (D-IL) and Aspen Institute President Walter Isaacson

Aspen Institute ^ | July 2, 2005

[JavaJumpy]

Audience member: If you have this great message and you have to turn it over to the opposition’s message machine — it’s like if you’re in court and you ask the opposing attorney to explain your story — how do we overcome that?

BO: Well, look, can the Democrats do a better job delivering a message? Absolutely. But this may reveal some naiveté on my part, and so I offer this with some hesitance. I don’t think that the Democrats will be effective simply by trying to mimic what the Republicans have done. First of all, we’re not as good at it. I think that if we express ourselves clearly, concisely, and are willing to take risks and describe what we believe in our guts as a party, then I think we can be successful. Now, that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t rapidly respond to untruths and that we don’t have to create an infrastructure to get our message out effectively. I think we do. And it would be wonderful if we had a network, so if you happen to have a lot of money, let me talk to you.

[JavaJumpy]

There is so much information in this Q & A I wouldn't know where to begin, but it's well worth the time spent reading.

[Jeff Head]

Here's one thing he said...filled with double speak:

I moved to Illinois after college because I was interested in working as a community organizer. And there were a group of churches out in the far South Side of Chicago that were struggling with the devastation of steel plants that had closed. The entire Rust Belt ran through the Chicago region. And communities had been devastated. People had been laid off. Parishes had been destroyed. Commercial strips had been abandoned, and these churches were trying to regroup and figure out how to patch neighborhoods back together again.

And so I moved there not knowing what to expect. I didn’t know a soul in Illinois. And it turned out to be the greatest education I ever received. We worked to help set up job training programs for the unemployed. We worked to improve the schools in the area, bring more city services and infrastructure improvements. But, most importantly, what it taught me was that ordinary people can do extraordinary things when they’re given the opportunity and they’re working together.

Please, let me translate:

I moved to Illinois after college because I was interested in finding a place to really put to good use the marxist principles I had been learning. And there were a group of churches out in the far South Side of Chicago that were very good at this, in taking advantage of the devastation of steel plants that had closed. The entire Rust Belt ran through the Chicago region. And communities had been devastated and were ripe for the kind of activism and agitation we knew we could bring in play there. People had been laid off. Parishes had been destroyed. Commercial strips had been abandoned, and these activist Black Liberation churches and other like minded activists knew that conditions were ripe for patching neighborhoods back together again according to our plans.

And so I moved there not knowing what to expect. I didn’t know a soul in Illinois. And it turned out to be the greatest education I ever received. I met William Ayers and Jeremiah Wright, and we were of the same mind so we worked to help set up training and indoctrination programs for the unemployed. We worked with the schools in the area to have them preach our message and we used folks like Rezko to corrupt the city government even more than it already was so we could bring more city services and infrastructure improvements to the people we were "changing". But, most importantly, what it taught me was that ordinary people can be captivated and indoctrinated into doing extraordinary things when they’re sufficently mesmerized and lulled by the public largess we grant them and when they’re working together to bring others into the same tent.

Now, I am in a position to bring the same change to the nation as a whole.

There, that more succinctly sums it up.

THE GREAT SEAL OF OBAMANATION



THE AUDACITY OF TRUTH ABOUT BARACK HUSSEIN OBAMA

[Bahbah]

It starts off with some hilarity... first African-American editor of the Harvard Law Review, a community organizer. But you know what? That doesn’t even come close to talking about your life story. His life story, as those of you who have read this book Dreams from My Father know, his life story is what July Fourth weekend is all about. It’s a life story that inspires us with the ideals of America

He was president of the HLR, not editor. He calls himself a communtiy organizer, but what he was was an activist, those guys described in "Mau-Mauing the Flack Catcher." If you read his book, you will know that he doesn't like white people. And July 4th weekend is NOT about having a mother who didn't like America or Americanism and who ran away from every Kansas value you can think of. Both of his parents pretty much dumped him. So far I am not getting inspired with the ideals of America.

[Skywalk]

Aspen Institute ping!

[Albertafriend]

You’re right—this is a goldmine of information!