Forum Name General Discussion: Primaries
Topic subject Camp Obama: Volunteers urged to avoid talking about policy, focus on how they "came" to Mr. Obama.
Topic URL
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x4627853#46278534627853, Camp Obama: Volunteers urged to avoid talking about policy, focus on how they "came" to Mr. Obama.
Posted by Karmadillo on Sun Feb-17-08 09:21 AM
Yikes!
http://www.talkleft.com/story/2008/2/17/21316/3316 On Edit: I linked to Jeralyn's discussion of this on Talk Left, but the story comes from the NY Times. Here's the original link:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/17/weekinreview/17zernike.html?_r=2&pagewanted=2&ref=us&oref=slogin <edit>
Accounts of the campaign’s “Camp Obama” sessions, to train volunteers, have a revivalist flavor. Volunteers are urged to avoid talking about policy to potential voters, and instead tell of how they “came” to Mr. Obama.
“If you don’t talk about issues in great detail, if you do it in a way that is not the centerpiece of your campaign, of your rhetoric, then you become a blank screen,” Mr. Wilentz said. “Everybody thinks you are the vehicle of their hopes.”
“To confuse this with Teddy Roosevelt or J.F.K. or F.D.R. is to make a fundamental historical error,” he said. “It’s confusing the offer of leadership with the offer of redemption. One offers specific programs, the other is hope and change. Certainly F.D.R. gave hope, but he was going to do it through these various programs.”
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