A Closer Look at Camp Obama (Huff Post)

[jefferson_dem]

Zack Exley| BIO | I'M A FAN OF THIS BLOGGER
Stories and Numbers - a Closer Look at Camp Obama

No one who attends a "Camp Obama" training weekend can deny that something truly beautiful is taking place inside the Barack Obama campaign. But beauty does not win votes. Is the campaign's innovative, intellectual and emotional training program leading toward electoral power, or just another screaming disappointment for the grassroots?



Friday night in Atlanta, about 200 Obama supporters from around the South gathered at the Morris Brown College student center to kick off an intensive three-day training program called "Camp Obama". Everyone sitting in the chairs had been interviewed and selected for their willingness to commit serious time to the campaign, leadership skills and past experience.

Most of the six regional Camp Obamas held so far have been lead by Harvard Professor Marshall Ganz. Coincidentally, Ganz began his political career 43 years earlier at a seminary right across the street from the weekend's training. He and fellow Harvard undergraduates had driven from Boston to join Freedom Summer. Expecting to find a late night strategy session in progress when they arrived, they instead walked in on a raucous "preach off" among young civil rights activists. And so began a lifelong career in applying story telling, emotion and faith to politics.

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But one final audience member gave him the answer that perfectly set up the rest of the weekend: "I get hope from stories. Obama's story that he told at the convention--that gave me hope."

"Yes! 'To inspire'--it literally means to breathe life into each other," Ganz replied, "And we can do that by telling our stories to each other. That's what Barack did for us when he told his story. And that's what we can do for others when we tell them our stories."

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http://www.huffingtonpost.com/zack-exley/stories-and-numbers-a-c_b_62278.html

[MethuenProgressive]

1. This is kinda culty-creepy

Isn't 'grassroots' upposed to mean working from the bottom up - not the 'top' recruiting and training people to be 'grassrooters'?

[zulchzulu]

2. Democracy from a grassroots level is a cult the Founding Fathers would appreciate

Perhaps if you participate in some grassroots efforts for your candidate, you'll see what a cool thing it really is. There is nothing wrong with training people how to do grassroots efforts from the "top"; it is actually a great way for people to get tips that could take years to figure out if you start out on your own.

Give it a try.