Who is Saul Alinsky, and why is Newt Gingrich so obsessed with him?

[steve2470]

http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Politics/The-Vote/2012/0128/Who-is-Saul-Alinsky-and-why-is-Newt-Gingrich-so-obsessed-with-him

Wherever Newt Gingrich goes these days – stumping in Florida, arguing on televised debates with fellow Republican presidential hopefuls, jotting down notes for his umpteenth book – he carries with him a scary but useful ghost: Saul Alinsky.

The radical community organizer (gone now these 40 years) is the specter on which Barack Obama has modeled his life, Gingrich warns. It’s no coincidence, he says, that both Alinsky and Obama were from Chicago or that the President passed up far more lucrative possibilities to become … a community organizer.

“The centerpiece of this campaign, I believe, is American exceptionalism versus the radicalism of Saul Alinsky,” Gingrich said in his South Carolina primary victory speech, a charge he finds constant ways to repeat. "Saul Alinsky radicalism is at the heart of Obama,” he said on CNN.

So who was Saul Alinsky?

[JoePhilly]

1. His hame sounds foreign ... which is enough to terrify the Tea Party nut jobs.

The vast majority have never heard of him before ... but to their simple minds, if the oh so smart Newt call the guy a radical, that's good enough for them.

Its kind of like the way Bush was able to get the stupid tea party types to think that Saddam Hussein and Osama Bin Laden were the same person.

[mzteris]

2. interesting info

from wiki:

"Adam Brandon, a spokesman for the conservative non-profit organization FreedomWorks, which is one of several groups involved in organizing Tea Party protests, says the group gives Alinsky's Rules for Radicals to its top leadership members. A shortened guide called Rules for Patriots is distributed to its entire network. In a January 2012 story that appeared in The Wall Street Journal, citing the organization's tactic of sending activists to town-hall meetings, Brandon explained, "his tactics when it comes to grass-roots organizing are incredibly effective." Former Republican House Majority Leader Dick Armey also gives copies of Alinsky's book Rules for Radicals to Tea Party leaders.[19]

[DCBob]

3. It sounds bad to the low-information RW voters even if they havent a clue who he is.

I wish the polls would include a question asking if they know who Saul Alinsky is. I suspect about 90% would not.

[Ikonoklast]

4. You got it all wrong, Gingrich is talking about Sollie Linsky, the guy who owns the local deli.

Sollie has the best hot pastrami on rye sandwich in Washington.

[muriel_volestrangler]

5. He's 'obsessed' with him because Beck and Limbaugh have been, for 4 years

and probably other RW fearmongers too. They've been connecting Obama to it ever since his 2008 run - see, if you can bear it, http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/daily/2008/08/26/the_obama_alinsky_connection or http://mediamatters.org/research/200808060009 . By mentioning him, Gingrich is just saying to Tea Partiers and other RW fanatics "I'm one of you".

I can't believe the CSM can write a piece titled that, without explaining that RW media have been claiming Obama is an Alinksy acolyte for years.