Camp Obama: Eager to “Empower You”

This is a letter sent to a supporter of the Obama Campaign:

Dear ___________,

You have an opportunity to play a major role in this nationwide movement for change.

Dedicated volunteers like you have brought us this far. But to execute our strategy for the general election, we need supporters to step into one of the most important roles of our campaign.

If you’re ready to take the next step, you are invited to attend a two-day Camp Obama training session near you.

Learn more about this special opportunity and apply to attend Camp Obama right now:

Camp Obama trainings offer a unique, in-depth look at the strategies and techniques that have driven this campaign.

These two-day sessions, to be held August 15th – 16th, are led by experienced Obama campaign staffers and other professional organizers who are eager to empower dedicated supporters like you.

After completing a camp session, attendees will be asked to fill essential volunteer positions in battleground states — these are demanding roles, but they are a vital part of our election strategy.

Supporters with experience in community organizing or political campaigns are strongly encouraged to apply. But the only requirement is that you support Barack and be ready to turn your enthusiasm and energy into action.

Here are some of the skills you’ll learn at Camp Obama:
• Tactics that will help you creatively and effectively organize voters
• Tips to increase the visibility of the campaign in your area
• Keys to mobilizing other volunteers to join our movement

Apply now for a Camp Obama training near you:

We’re excited to invite our most dedicated supporters to get involved with the campaign in this crucial role.

Thank you for everything you’re doing to build this movement,

Obama for America

He wants to empower you to use the strategies that have driven this campaign? Like what, for instance?

Bullying at the caucuses? Those kinds of tactics? Having someone with an “Obama for America” sign sitting at a table inside an Indiana polling location to help voters with any “confusion” or “questions.”

Camp Obama training? Anything like EST training? The Forum? The Secret? Do they let you go to the bathroom? Forgive the snark, but this is beyond New Age.

I cannot profess to understand what ‘techniques’ will be taught at “Camp Obama” but the verbiage of these “two day sessions” sounds like indoctrination. It smacks of all day intensive self-help workshops. Are they practicing the Vulcan mind meld? Acceptance into the Borg Collective?

And let’s not forget the Kids for Obama page…

I seem to remember Sens. McCaskill and Casey saying their kids were ’screaming’ at them to vote for Senator Obama. We are looking to elect the President of the United States, not to get a shiny new toy. I, typically do not consult kids or teenagers, whose brains are not fully formed yet, when making important political decisions that will affect my family and my country’s future.

I have never seen any campaign employ these methods and if some of the paid bloggers for Senator Obama are indicative of those versed in the ‘techniques’ he is talking about, then I am very worried indeed.

The vile rhetoric that has been used repeatedly all over the internet, the verbal attacks leveled at Hillary supporters out in public, the “techniques” of Obama supporters walking around with camera phones threatening to take pictures of Hillary supporters – this all strikes me as a form of voter intimidation.

The rock star mindset of this campaign: the huge rallies, the ‘uplifting’ non-specific, hopey/changey pablum filled speeches designed to enflame without posing solutions, all strike me as more of the mass marketing of Obama. As I have stated previously, there is a danger when one is more than involved, but enthralled.

I fear this two-day training camp is teaching a pitch that sells a symbol without substance.

Much like the man himself.

What say you?
****
(Special thanks to pcmck)