McCain shuns Habitat for Humanity

My father works for Habitat for Humanity in Minneapolis and has been helping a team of people put forth a ton of effort to organize a John McCain visit to a build site. It's nothing serious, just a simple photo op to help fundraising for the company - one of the nations largest non-profits. Habitat would have done the same thing with the DNC if they were in town as well. Anyway, Mr. McCain cancelled the visit today, the day of the event. Beyond the fact that it would be weird to have a photo of him, owner of a dozen homes, standing with a family that has worked over 250 sweaty hours to try to get into their first, there's a great item about it over at The Huffington Post that calls out another issue.

But another part of the reason McCain canceled the outing is because last night, his campaign went out of its way to slag community organizers, defaming them for not having any "actual responsibilities." Habitat For Humanity, as it happens, is one of the biggest brand names in community organizing -- they maintain a massive network of individual donors, are capable of mobilizing an equally impressive volunteer base to contribute labor to the cause, and have a global reach. It's not a bad idea at all to associate one's own brand with Habitat's. But after last night, I have to imagine that McCain would have found it difficult to face the community organizers of Habitat For Humanity.

Here's to hoping the foundation continues to crack on all RNC messages.