Been blogging the memories of that storm’s day, too.

WHAT HAS OBAMA DONE, OTHER THAN DO A NICE JOB READING SPEECHES FROM A TELEPROMPTER THAT SHOWS THAT HE HAS THE CHARACTER, QUALIFICATIONS, AND ABILITY TO SERVE AS PRESIDENT AND COMMANDER IN CHIEF?

He finished his comments with this observation:

The guy is a lightweight by any standards. He has never led anything, never faced adversity, never run a business, never served the country, etc. etc. etc

I answered Nose’s challenge in that thread by examining Obama’s career time line in detail. Apparently that thread has became active again, and I will answer those folks shortly.

I will approach the issue the way a doc does: the why, the where, what am I missing, where am I being mislead, can I put a story together to explains what is happening. After all, this business of “community organizer” is a mystery, a bit of forensics is required.

The central and overriding question is why did the McCain brain trust decide to make community organizer such a big thing? All major speakers, with the exception of the big guy himself, hit on this topic. The simplest explanation is death by a thousand cuts, after all, the campaign is being managed Steve Schmidt, one of Carl Rove’s wunderkids.

And then, much to Michelle Malkin’s utter disgust, McCain, oozing sincerity, publicly stated that he had nothing but the highest admiration for “community organizers”. Hallo, anybody home??? Is there something we may be missing???

On the Obama side, the big question is why did he wimp out? The Dem establishment went nuts. The refrain from the big wigs was why is Obama not “attacking McCain”. But, that only lasted a few days before it was shut down. Maybe, just maybe, it was in his interest not to get bogged down in a pseudo-controversy…

The one thing about Obama is that he is a long range thinker, he is a realist, and he is able to apply risk benefit principles to his campaign. He identified the only way he was going to be able to beat the Clintons was by capturing the young, and with their enthusiasm, overwhelm the established Democratic machine at those states that had caucuses. He succeeded.

Given the way this man thinks and acts, he knew the election was going to come down to the three debates. In America, with its long history of racial intolerance, the odds of a bi-racial man becoming president were incredibly small. The first step was to capture the nomination – that was accomplished. The second step was to knock out his presidential opponent, and that could only happen in the debates.

Somewhere, in those debates he will say this:

I have walked the mean streets of New York and Chicago as a community organizer. I know what lack of health care does to families, and I have seen the impact of second rate education on those who could have achieved more. I have worked with those whose well paying jobs were shipped overseas, and who now were struggling to keep their families fed and clothed on a minimum wage job.

Some have mocked me for being a community organizer, but I will tell you this: There is a world of difference between the minimum wage, and a living wage. One is the bottom, the other, is the one that allows us to live with dignity. My opponent, while inflation eroded the minimum wage voted 19 times against adjusting this government mandate. Only once did he vote in favor of increasing the minimum wage, and that was when he had no choice. It was tied to a war spending bill.

In my response to Nose, I point out that when Obama graduated with distinction from Harvard Law school, and after a stint as editor of the Harvard Law Review, he could have written his own ticket. Instead he chose Chicago, and a for starters, a low paying job as a community organizer. Most would consider that an idealistic step, for it takes fire in the belly to pass up a lucrative and satisfying legal career. Steve Schmidt knew two things: (1) a controversy over “community organizer” would obscure Obama’s significant accomplishments at Harvard. (2) McCain could not be part of the smear, for folks with an open mind would spot the implications of this attack.

A while back Lex questioned my use of the terms “slime” and “smear”. In my response to Nose (the link is above) I define when and how I use these words. To fully understand this post, it has to be framed within Obama’s time line.

I will leave you with what drove Our Lady of the Poison Pen up a tree:

“Governor Palin was responding to the criticism of her inexperience, her job as a mayor in a small town,” McCain explained. “Of course I respect community organizers. Of course I respect people who’ve served their communities, and Senator Obama’s record there is outstanding.”

The bolding is not mine, it is Michelle Malkin’s. Although she does not understand the political shell game that Steve Schmidt is playing, she sure knows how to tickle our fun bone.