Come Nov. 5, John McCain supporters might just rue the day they made all those wisecracks about community organizers.
Approaches central to community organizing - building grassroots support, harnessing volunteer labor, directing coalitions toward one goal - are paying off big time for Barack Obama. Want proof? Just look at the thousands of well-organized and trained out-of-state volunteers pouring into battleground states for his campaign.
From now until Election Day, they will call voters, knock on doors and train others about how the political process works. Obama's concept of "hope" - knocked by so many as nebulous - has raised a groundswell of support, and he's got community organizing to thank.
Consider the case of Brittany Lindon of Hot Springs, Ark., married mother of two, doctorial candidate and an ardent Obama supporter. She's living with a family she just met in Kansas City, working 14-hour days at an Obama campaign office, one of 44 in the bellwether state. Lindon is part of a team set up to welcome and organize the 1,000 out-of-state workers the office expects to help in one Missouri county alone on Election Day. The volunteers have come from places like Louisiana and Illinois - and even from Britain.
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