During the health-care battle, rather than rallying the grass roots behind a public option - a provision Obama repeatedly supported and a clear majority of Americans backed - supporters were told to voice generalized support for "reform." In an e-mail from OFA, I was asked to call my senator, Chuck Schumer, a clear champion of the health-care plan that included a public option. Why not ask people to target centrist Democrats who were blocking reform, such as Max Baucus? It may have been counterproductive for me, a Brooklynite, to call a Montana senator's office, but at the very least I could have been asked to call OFA members in Montana and urge them to pressure Baucus.
^^^^^^ CB: Helloooo, how many OFA people are in Montana ? How many does Baucus listen to ? Baucus is like Lieberman. This is very "unrealistic" . The writer does not put forth a feasible.
In Detroit, OFA has been operating all along since the election. I have been to about 7 meetings. One on writing letters to the editor. About 20 people attended. There is an office maintained. We held rallys in the health care fight. We use the computerized support and voter lists. The following statement from the article is false with respect to Detroit's OFA.
"During the battle over tax cuts, Obama's grass-roots network, Organizing for America, was silent"
But the tax cuts issue is recent. Over the last two years, OFA has held meeting and been in touch e-wise with its grass-roots network here.
There are also many communications directly from the White House and other Obama sources for any of the 13 million fresh campaigners who obviously have the sense and current habit of using the web readily and steadily, especially the internet generation. So, the focus on OFA in trying to portray a picture of neglect of the 13 million fresh people is misleading. The are other Obama communication sources.
The picture of an automatic and easy transition from fresh campaigner and voter to fresh lobbyist, and grassroots lobbyist is probably the biggest fallacy in this article. Just cause somebody in Montane voted for Obama (or even Baucus) doesn't mean they can influence Max Baucus ,of all people for God's sake, to vote for the public option. Sure don't mean somebody in Brooklyn can influence somebody in Montana to influence Max Baucus...R u fucking kidding me ?