Camp Obama: two-day training sessions for BHO volunteers to promulgate Barack's message to the countryside

The BHO campaign has sent out emails to me and probably millions of other lucky recipients encouraging us to sign up for a local "Camp Obama" (my.barackobama.com/page/s/campobamaus, my.barackobama.com/page/s/campobama08la), a two-day session where we'd learn how to be effective organizers for the campaign. Hopefully a citizen reporter will sign up to report back with a critical eye, but for now all we have are the positive and very many negative connotations brought to mind. You can see a full copy of the email here, and if you want to be creeped out even more see the description of last year's "camps" here:

Rivals of Obama know that while he may at times appear to channel Martin Luther King Jr., his methods sometimes give evidence of his allegiance to [Saul Alinsky], who shunned starry-eyed idealists and recommended purging do-gooders from organizations. Alinsky wanted results. And his methods often forced the hands of elected officials... It's not enough to want to help others, [an Obama campaign staffer] says. These campers need to focus on people's self-interests. What do they want? How can Obama help them? ..."We want you to stop thinking about Barack Obama and be Barack Obama," she says.

Keep chanting "it's not a cult and these aren't indoctrination sessions" over and over again as you read the BHO-produced blog about last year: campobama.blogspot.com:

Steve Westly, Chair, California Leadership Committee makes a brief 8 minute speech to the Northern California volunteers assembled on the morning of 8.11.07 that Barack Obama is among the most outstanding candidates to ever grace our lives... ...[Marshall Ganz, PhD Sociology, Harvard] goes into how we can develop our own stories of self so we can relate with voters on a deeper emotional level than just to transfer information. Features analysis of Barack's 2004 Democratic National Convention Speech opening.

It's not a cult, I swear!

Note also that camp is "led by experienced Obama campaign staffers and other professional organizers"; who falls into the latter "camp" and what organizations they're with would definitely be interesting to know.

Politics · Wed, 07/30/2008 - 13:11 · · Importance: 1