Almost immediately after the venom-spewing session that was Wednesday night at the Republican National Convention wrapped, an email came across from David Plouffe, Obama’s campaign manager.  Here’s an excerpt:

Both Rudy Giuliani and Sarah Palin specifically mocked Barack’s experience as a community organizer on the South Side of Chicago more than two decades ago, where he worked with people who had lost jobs and been left behind when the local steel plants closed.

Let’s clarify something for them right now.

Community organizing is how ordinary people respond to out-of-touch politicians and their failed policies.

And it’s no surprise that, after eight years of George Bush, millions of people have found that by coming together in their local communities they can change the course of history. That promise is what our campaign has been about from the beginning.

Throughout our history, ordinary people have made good on America’s promise by organizing for change from the bottom up. Community organizing is the foundation of the civil rights movement, the women’s suffrage movement, labor rights, and the 40-hour workweek. And it’s happening today in church basements and community centers and living rooms across America.

This seems to be just the window the Obama campaign is looking for to really hammer home the “McCain and the Republicans are out of touch” message. Not only was there thinly veiled sneering at the term “community organizer” as any sort of legit leadership experience by Guiliani and Palin, the audience was eating it up as well.

While the MSM has been overflowing with general praise for her performance, the blogosphere was quick to react.  Marc Cooper’s sarcasm-laden response to Palin’s speech can be found here.  P+P’s own Tricia Romano offers her take on Palin and everyone else here.  And the website SameFacts has done its own analysis of Palin’s speech vs. “reality” here.

Perhaps most poignant, however, is the comment that was left on Ms. Romano’s piece by “karimah,” an impassioned former community organizer:

(more…)