So let's talk a bit about education and how the Obama campaign is using learning theory ...

Obama himself is an educator and one of the first things any true educator realizes is the need to tap into one's intrinsic motivation by creating a learning situation which is highly relevant and contextualized, dealing directly with personal applications to real life issues.

That's exactly what the Obama campaign is doing. Addressing the core issues most Americans relate to on a very personal basis. The criticism that the candidate really hasn't fleshed out his platform, therefore, seems moot. By informing the audience of his passionate commitment to these issues and his equal passion for their input into his campaign, he is establishing an environemnt for discovery learning, or project based learning, to occur. He is also effectively positioning himself as a co-participant in this process.

Linguist Stephen Krashen defines the ideal learning environment as "i+1": the desired response is a behavior which challenges the subject with content that is just slightly more complex than his currrent state of knowledge.

Obama's stump speech is designed to emphasize that the success of the campaign is directly related to the activism of his supporters. He is challenging supporters to take a further step, to become actively engaged in a process which is (to varying degrees) unfamiliar. Not too threatening. Just go to barackobama.com and read what other suporters are suggesting, working on. Join a group in your area. Maybe even start a group. Attend an event. Invite others to attend. Raise money. Keep track of your fundraising. His people are providing the scaffolding. All baby steps (given some degree of tech literacy). Very wise move.

What I also see happening here is an application of Paulo Freire's concepts applied to grassroots activism, a reframing of politics to create a vital environment empowered by recognition of the inherent equality of its members.

Is the Obama campaign aware of these strategies? I would think so.

Maslow once wrote: ""A musician must make music, an artist must paint, a poet must write,
if he is to be at peace with himself. What a man can be, he must be.
This is the need we may call self-actualization ... It refers to man's
desire for fulfillment, namely to the tendency for him to become
actually in what he is potentially: to become everything that one
is capable of becoming ..."

This is what I see happening here. Sure, I read that Salon piece, I also read MD's comments in NYT a week or so back, depicting a side of Obama that no one else saw that night.

And yes, I did feel it in my gut. I didn't have that feeling seeing Ted Kennedy, Howard Dean, Dennis Kuchinch, or Ronald Reagan.

This candidate is now at the top of his form. He's come a long way since 2002. He's undoubtedlly elicited a lot of help geting there.

But honestly? You just can't fake natural. Either you've got it or you don't. Obama has it, Clinton doesn't.

Maybe drinking some of the "Obama juice" isn't lethal. I think we are all searching for a little hope right now.