Whatever the Obama campaign ultimately accomplishes, it's certainly making its mark as representing a much greater commitment to grassroots organizing than we've seen in a long, long time.
This is undoubtedly true and it is a result of Obama's background as a community organizer. He understands the power that ordinary people posses when they are organized around a common vision and set of ideals. Organizing is hard work and labor intensive. It takes hours out in the field every day, knocking on doors, getting people registered and then following up to keep them engaged. Ultimately though the only way for regular people to affect change in this country is through such organizations. Obama understands this, he led voter registration efforts in 1992 (registering 150,000 voters in Chicago) and he made his living as a community organizer on the economically devastated South Side.
This is a campaign with a unique focus on grassroots organizing because it is a campaign being led by someone with a unique organizing perspective. It's like a city council race gone national.
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