(Originally published at Greater Democracy.)

Friday, I watched the stock markets plunge, yet again, only to rally, dive, rally and dive with the DOW closing down another 128 points. I read more reports of Gov. Palin trying to cast doubt on Sen. Obama because he had served on a board along side a former member of the Weather Underground as well as a former Nixon aide. The project was funded in large part by a former another Nixon administration official. Then later in the day, I read that a legislative investigation found that Gov. Palin had ‘abused her power by violating Statue 39.52.110(a) of the Alaska Executive Branch Ethics Act’.

Saturday, I wrote a blog post about continued efforts by Republicans to suppress voter registration efforts, and then I stepped away from the computer. I spent the day at a Harvest Festival at the YMCA camp that my seven-year-old daughter, Fiona, had attended last summer. We climbed the climbing wall. We shot arrows in the archery range. Fiona participated in a sack race and painted a pumpkin. Then we all went on a hayride underneath the brightly colored leaves of the trees in Naugatuck State Forest set against a deep blue sky. Other than when my wife Kim painted an Obama Logo on a piece of paper at the Arts and Crafts table, with the word HOPE over it, it was a trip mostly devoid of politics and economics.

I set this backdrop, knowing it will bury my lede, but also feeling that it is important to set a context of a greater perspective. Jon Lebkowsky, Zack Exley and others have been talking a lot about "The New Organizers". You can see some of the discussion in Jon’s blog post, Zack Exley on "The New Organizers" where he quote’s Zack’s article on Huffington Post, The New Organizers, Part 1: What's really behind Obama's ground game.

Win or lose, "The New Organizers" have already transformed thousands of communities - and revolutionized the way organizing itself will be understood and practiced for at least the next generation.