One of the ridiculous criticisms of Sen. Obama is that he is elitist or out of touch with the heart of working class America. I think a series of ads detailing Sen. Obama's tough upbringing and showing testimonials from his community work in the South Side of Chicago could show that he is definitely in touch with the struggles of real people and put faces to his experience with them.

Obama's story is an American story. But there are so many others. The idea is start a site with oral, visual, and written personal histories. Supposedly there is a concern that Obama is too exotic, not "American enough." Let's include everyone's biography and show who and what America is. This has both a symbolic rationale and is similar to the WPA journalism work back in the 1940s.

One of the familiar lines of Barack's biography is that he chose to be a community organizer on the south side of Chicago. I don't think I'm the only one who has a vague idea of what that entails. He should highlight how he worked with faith-based groups and explain how he built up the community. Even using a better phrase than "community organizer" may go a long way.