While the potential Republican presidential candidates hang back, engaging in an off-year cat-and-mouse game, the president’s camp is gearing up in advance of 2012.
Organizing For America, the grassroots political arm of the Obama White House, has put out the call for “summer organizers.”
“They will be trained in the basic principles that have always built and powered effective grassroots movements, and will be assigned to a specific community where they’ll work to organize supporters street by street, neighborhood by neighborhood,” said Jeremy Bird, who’s leading the recruiting efforts for OFA. “They’ll recruit volunteers, run events, knock on doors, and do what it takes to support the president’s agenda. And, in the end, their work will take our grassroots power to an impressive new level.”
Bird certainly doesn’t shy away from the “community organizer” title that conservatives often use in sarcastic tones to criticize the president.
“Successful movements have always been built and grown by ordinary people who take responsibility for organizing their fellow citizens to make their voices heard,” he wrote in an e-mail.” We’re looking for folks who are ready to work hard to support the President’s agenda and lay new groundwork to carry this movement forward for years to come.”
