Will this cost Obama the presidency? Talk of a scathing Barack Obama campaign memo about Sen. Hillary Clinton’s ties to India continued to roil the Indian-American community yesterday, with some writing him off or demanding a direct apology and others pledging continued allegiance.
The Obama campaign fired up Indian-Americans with a research memo attacking Sen. Hillary Clinton’s ties to wealthy Indian-Americans that became public last week. The memo mockingly described Clinton’s political affiliation as (D-Punjab).
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/wn_report/2007/06/17/2007-06-17_bams_indiamemo_bomb_lingers.html
If a ‘Macaca Moment’ put paid to Republican senator George Allen’s presidential ambitions and Democratic aspirant Joe Biden’s brush with Indian Americans left him a bit dunked, there is no saying how hard the '‘Pun’Jab’ would hit rising black star Barack Obama.
Obama, chasing Hillary Clinton in the race for Democratic nomination, apparently had no idea what it means to take a ‘panga’ with the Indians when his campaign suggested that the former first lady was more of a senator from Punjab.
The Indian Americans were clearly not amused by Obama turning a recent joke by Clinton, that given her support among the Indians she could easily be elected from Punjab, into a political projectile.
US India Political Action committee, a body of Indian Americans, took umbrage at Obama campaign’s analysis of 'Hillary Clinton (D-Punjab)‘s Personal Financial And Political Ties To India’ suggesting that the Clintons have reaped significant financial rewards from their relationship with the Indian community.
What miffed them all the more was that Obama, who himself is trying to woo the Indian community, had chosen to take a leaf from 2004 Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry’s book to play the outsourcing card.
The Obama memo, initially sought to be passed to the media on a ‘don’t tell’ basis, accused former president Bill Clinton of investing tens of thousands of dollars in an Indian bill payment company, and Hillary herself of taking tens of thousands from companies that outsource jobs to India.
As the Indian community waited for Obama to respond to allegations that his campaign has been ‘promoting hurtful stereotypes against the Indian American community’, one wondered whether he would pay as heavy a price as Allen did for calling a Democratic Indian American campaign worker a ‘macaca’ or a monkey.
Or would he escape with a little rap on the knuckles as Joe Biden did after suggesting that one cannot visit a ‘Dunkin Donut’ shop in America without having a slightly Indian accent?