According to a New York Times article (mentioned in a posting by lambiel on MyDD), the Obama campaing has circulated a memo attacking Hillary Clinton for fund-raising among Indian-Americans and for having (within a blind trust) an investment in an Indian company. The attack also extended to Bill Clinton for giving a paid talk to a major U.S. company that has outsourced some positions to India. Here is the quote from the New York Times:
Shortly after the Clinton campaign released the financial information, the campaign of Senator Barack Obama, the Illinois Democrat, circulated to news organizations -- on what it demanded be a not-for-attribution-basis -- a scathing analysis. It called Mrs. Clinton "Hillary Clinton (D-Punjab)" in its headline. The document referred to the investment in India and Mrs. Clinton's fund-raising efforts among Indian-Americans. The analysis also highlighted the acceptance by Mr. Clinton of $300,000 in speech fees from Cisco, a company the Obama campaign said has moved American jobs to India.
A copy of the document was obtained by Mrs. Clinton's campaign, which provided it to The New York Times. The Clinton campaign has long been frustrated by the effort by Mr. Obama to present his campaign as above the kind of attack politics that Mr. Obama and his aides say has led to widespread disillusionment with politics by many Americans.
Asked about the document, Bill Burton, a spokesman for Mr. Obama, said: "We did give reporters a series of comments she made on the record and other things that are publicly available to anyone who has access to the Internet. I don't see why anyone would take umbrage with that."
Asked why the Obama campaign had initially insisted that it not be connected to the document, Mr. Burton replied, "I'm going to leave my comment at that."
I see nothing wrong with having an investment in an Indian company or in fundraising among Indian Americans. I also see nothing wrong with Bill Clinton giving a paid talk to Cisco. In these days of multinational companies, are we supposed to boycott all firms that outsource? If so, nobody will be able to buy, sell, or be hired for pay by anybody.
I am troubled by the Obama campaign's attack on Hillary for this. It brings up memories of other attacks on those who campaign among other immigrant American groups. Not what I would expect of the Obama campaign.
I can only hope that this was something that was done without Obama's knowledge or approval, as I certainly don't think this reflects his world view.
Thoughts?
Comments are closed on this story.