An Organizer Walks Into the Largest Church Basement on Earth...

I, for one, don't expect Obama to go the route of lofty rhetoric (although there will be some orated flourishes and one-liner soundbites, no doubt). Rather, instead of asking people in one famous sentence to "ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country," I think he's going to do more nuts and bolts facilitating - explaining in some detail "what you can do," for example - than merely attempting to inspire a feel-good instant-in-time.

Face to face is where you get 'nuts and bolts' done.  But that's a different order of business entirely from an inauguration speech.

Oratory works the crowd: swelling emotions and clarity of speech can provide a moment of satisfaction for audience members that will propel them well past perspiration and back breaking effort.  Obama will be setting the backdrop for future endeavors by providing inspiration from which he can draw at will.

Mere laundry list exegis will, I think, disappoint and rob us, initially, of a few millimeters of backbone.  It won't be missed up front, but someday, when we need it, we'll reach for it and it won't be there.  There's work to be done, and Obama needs to shed light on the righteousness of the work, so that we get to it that much more energetically.

I'm sure BHO understands the functions of different fora.  I'd expect quite a bit of polish and inspiration Tuesday afternoon.  Al's post seems to imply he expects Barack to get out a blackboard and start giving lessons in Alinskyan organizing principles; I doubt that's what he means, but I would expect a fairly direct appeal for sustained citizen engagement, and a turn away, at least to some extent, from the substance-free uplift of the Clinton and GWB innaugurals.

The best place for the nitty-gritty organizing is probably in web/tv appearances like the one above, and I hope he makes good use of those, as the transition seems to indicate he plans to.

It's useful when thinking about these things to go to the source: FDR's innaugural and fireside chats are available here (click on his name for a menu) and they're fascinating listening/reading.  The innaugural especially is instructive:  beyond the "fear itself" line (which may be the best distillation of macroeconomic psychology ever uttered), he gets fairly specific in outlining the "lines of attack" of his new strategy, couching his economic policies in wonderfully populist and moralist language.

I assume, or at least hope, that the Obama political team have studied all these very closely.  My only worry with him as a communicator is that while he has a real talent for what Ron Wyden called "walking the country through the choices," he doesn't necessarily have the populist touch in those more intimate settings, and he's not often very funny in them.

Obama does need to soar at least to a height where we can reach for that inspiration when we need it going forward.  I like the idea of shedding "light on the righteousness of the work."  As Lincoln said in his 2nd inaugural address: "With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation's wounds. . . ."

His inauguration is the exhalation of this whole year, two years!  Before we can draw a big breath to tackle the work ahead, we do have to exhale.  For me, the inauguration is "Ah, finally.  Here is the moment I've been hoping and working for.  It's real."

I agree with previous comments - BHO is going to inspire.  As I expect most of us will have tears streaming down our grinning faces well before he speaks, I still think he's going to reach for it.  Too much emphasis on Lincoln for BHO not to appeal to "the better nature" in each of us - agree with Dona Hickey he'll use Lincoln's 2nd, but there's still a lot of Lincoln's 1st. we've got to deal with, our country is cracking apart.  BHO will be speaking to the world - and I don't think many of his listeners, and later readers would consider inspiration 'mainstream' yet.  Maybe some day, but not yet.

I expect a Call to Service, common sacrifice, and community. An I'll bet he knocks our socks off!

I was so struck by the fact that you included parents to children of a different race than themselves in your list of those who have been inspired. Count me in as one of them. It has been yet another "icing on the cake" for me after a whole long list of policy and vision.

I am an adoptive mom to a daughter who is of a different race than my husband and I(although as it turns out she's happening to grow up looking like the genetic combo between my Irish self and my darker Italian husband). However when we seek to do foster-adopt through the state again soon it is more than likely that, because we again won't list a "preference," our next child will be an African American boy as they are by far the hardest to place of all waiting children.

My husband and I have so much hope(um, not just "hope"-- we're doing our homework to the best of our ability and keeping our eyes wide open to reality as well) for the fact that an eventual son will have the ultimate roll-model in Obama-- a good, good man, so bright and talented and principled--who was raised by people a different color than he(albeit genetically related). or maybe it's Madeline and Ann and Stanley who give US hope for being able to do right for our child.

I think so many people don't foster/adopt not because THEY don't feel they could love and claim a child of a different race, so much as they have a fear that they would do a bad job from society's/the child's perspective.

I have-- screw it, yes-- hope-- that this is one of many things where the rules will be changing. One more small area where fresh air is slowly begininning to blow.

I signed up for a Jan. 19 training to do tax returns for EITC for low income working families at www.usaservice.org  The call to service is building!  Check out the website - there's loads of events listed for this weekend.

Renee

From the LA Times:

As Barack Obama builds his administration and prepares to take office next week, his political team is quietly planning for a nationwide hiring binge that would marshal an army of full-time organizers to press the new president's agenda and lay the foundation for his reelection.

The organization, known internally as "Barack Obama 2.0," is being designed to sustain a grass-roots network of millions that was mobilized last year to elect Obama and now is widely considered the country's most potent political machine.

Linkage:

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/washingtondc/la-na-obama-army14-...

The video in this post and the letter to Sasha and Malia gave me goose bumps.  Barack never ceases to amaze me.

From Parade:

Next Tuesday, Barack Obama will be sworn in as our 44th President. On this historic occasion, PARADE asked the President-elect, who is also a devoted family man, to get personal and tell us what he wants for his children. Here, he shares his letter to them.

http://www.parade.com/news/2009/01/barack-obama-letter-to-my-daughters.html

I don't think it's an either-or question.  He needs both to inspire and to give direction.  He's capable of both, so I'm not worried.  :-)

When a friend gave a house party in December, she was shocked that over half the people attending had not been part of the grassroots before the election. We're still getting new people. We need them.  The work still to be done is much bigger than the election, and we will exhaust our volunteers without new blood.

Remember after Iowa, when Obama invited everyone who was "not yet part of this movement" to join?  He needs to do the same now, on a much bigger scale.  That takes inspiration.

Renee, your post on the USA call to service reminded me that in spite of my intention to do so, I had not yet signed up for anything on the 19th. So I took a minute just now and signed up for an event in my area: a presentation about a one-on-one mentoring program. I have had my eye on that program for 2 years, but had never taken the first step.

Thanks to your reminder, and Barack, I am finally taking action!

Yeah - exactly - that's a very big part of it indeed. I agree with the U.S. call to service and my own research (for my book) shows so many instances of the generations behind my own being open, ready, and driven by the call to service.

But the international need for a president like Obama, for a new American face, is so clear. Amidst all the predictable, personality-driven malarky around Senator Clinton's rather remarkable, enlightening, and uplifting perormance in her confirmation hearing - the big story got lost.

And that story is a massive, major shift in how the U.S. conducts foreign policy. Clinton was masterful, but more to the point she conveyed Obama's new policy essence - one that begins next Tuesday.

Several things stood out: the willingness to engage, to talk, and to be smart. The discussion of women's issues and human rights was fantastic. And yes, the incoming Obama administration remains steadfastly hawkish on the middle east - though some of the langauge was a shift; for instance, Clinton's direct reference to Palestinian suffering along with support for Israel. And it seems clear Hillary will be in Syria and possibly Iran very soon on the President's behalf.

But Al, I'd love to hear your thoughts on the Latin American indications from the incoming SecState - particularly the Cuba discussion (both written response and oral testimony) which made nearly official a broad, new, more liberal strategy under President Obama. Is it the change you expected? Will he go further in this hemisphere?

Tom W - I've just posted exactly that - my "thoughts on the Latin American indications from the incoming SecState" - and my reflections on it will probably bring a smile to you.

It's a mind meld worthy of, oh I dunno, Barack and Hillary - I'll go dig in.

BTW, I enjoyed the meaty back and forth between Kerry and Clinton - it was stylish AND substantive, with both clearly getting into their roles.

...as I typed some of those words!

You do know what else takes place in church basements.....all over the world....friends of bill w.