Obama And National Service

I feel like we're in a mode on the blogosphere where only the bad "move to the center" things about Obama are mentioned and nothing else he's doing. So I thought I'd mention his upcoming speech today on national service, which has a series of vague-sounding but generally laudable initiatives:

• Encourage national service to address the great challenges of our time, including combating climate change, extending health care, improving our schools and strengthening America overseas by showing the world the best of our nation.
• Expand AmeriCorps to 250,000 slots and double the size of the Peace Corps.
• Integrate service-learning into our schools and universities to enable students to graduate college with as many as 17 weeks of service experience under their belts.
• Provide new service opportunities for working Americans and retirees.
• Expand service initiatives that engage disadvantaged young people and advance their education.
• Expand the capacity of nonprofits to innovate and expand successful programs across the country.
• Enable more Americans to serve in the armed forces.

Like Matt Yglesias I agree that service for service's sake is not a desired goal, and that these all must be measured for effectiveness. But engaging people in a new meaning of citizenship and becoming active within their communities is a pretty solid concept, and so I think this blueprint combined with measurement would be excellent. In a way it's catching the wave of civic engagement that has taken off politically with things like the... well, the Obama campaign.