Deepak Chopra on Obama memo: "I thought that was ridiculous. We are American citizens, right?"

[draft_mario_cuomo]

Chopra made this statement at a $2 million fund-raiser held by Indian-Americans for Hillary Clinton as Indian-Americans continue to rally behind HRC in light of the Obama memo, which the group targeted by it clearly viewed as offensive (just as Obama himself would view a similar memo about his ethnic group as offensive). Sadly, some are having trouble understanding this, but as Chopra noted, Americans with Indian heritage are American--and equally as American as those with Kenyan heritage, Irish heritage, or Indonesian heritage.

Before anyone revives the racist canard that equates any brown person with a nihilistic love for sending jobs from their town to a foreign nation (after all, only those with the "correct" skin color are "real" Americans who are loyal to America :eyes: ), the article notes that the event was heavily attended by physicians and bankers. In other words, no one with a business interest in outsourcing, like some of the people--of all colors--some candidates are raising millions and millions of dollars from...

Note: Chopra did say Obama was a "wonderful candidate" but that did not prevent him from stating the obvious about the memo.

==New York, June 26 (IANS) At a high profile gathering of Indian-American supporters here, Senator Hillary Clinton raised about $2 million for her 2008 presidential race.==

==The event comes shortly after Clinton's leading Democratic opponent, Senator Barack Obama, apologised for an internal campaign memo that was critical of Clinton's close ties to the Indian-American community.

Criticising Obama for the memo, prominent author Deepak Chopra said, "I thought that was ridiculous. We are American citizens, right? He's a minority. He should know better".==

==Apart from Chopra, many high-profile Indian-American physicians and bankers attended the event.==

http://mangalorean.com/news.php?newstype=local&newsid=46619

[Larkspur]

1. Hillary favors outsourcing jobs to India and I'm sure she would not mind increasing H1B visas for

Indians to supplant Americans in their jobs. While those attending Hillary's Indian-American fundraiser aren't outsourcing their business' jobs yet, I bet many have family in India who would like to come over and of course they would need jobs.

I sure would like to outsource Hillary's job to India and see how she likes living on unemployment checks only.

[rinsd]

2. Dam immigrants. Why can't jobs go to "real" Americans!

:puke:

[draft_mario_cuomo]

8. I have never lived overseas but because I am brown...

...I have some pre-programmed fetish with sending jobs from my town to a foreign nation! :crazy:

I am very disappointed at how common this canard is among supporters of one candidate--and apparently one candidate only.

[William769]

4. And Obama favors outsourcing jobs to criminals.

Whats your point?

[draft_mario_cuomo]

6. I am South Asian. Thanks for telling me what I and my family want to do

Yes, I confess. I am part of a vast brown conspiracy to send jobs from a mile away to a foreign nation because I am not a real American. Oh, and so is my family. See, the came to America so they could make the nation poorer all because a long-range plot to promote a country they no longer live in. Hey, someone has to take one for the team?

OBAMA HAS THE SAME POSITION ON OUTSOURCING!!!!!!! How long are you people going to attack HRC and an entire ethnic group while saying nothing about your hero's position on the same issue?

[durrrty libby]

11. You should be happy living in delusion land but instead,

you seem so cranky

[aquart]

12. Please provide a LINK to her pro-outsourcing statements.

We'd all like to be as well-informed as you.

[SaveElmer]

13. Howard Dean on Outsourcing and India...

The new chairman of the Democratic National Committee, Dr Howard Dean, believes the Indian-American community should find the Democratic Party more attractive as it is not only more favourable toward immigration, but also is a more diverse and welcoming than the Republican Party.

In an exclusive interview with rediff India Abroad Managing Editor Aziz Haniffa in Houston, Texas, recently, Dean, the former governor of Vermont, said he intends to bring Indian Americans to the upper and senior echelons of the party. He also said he would continue to reach out to the idealism and activism of the younger generation of the community at the grass-roots level that constituted the core of his presidential campaign.

Dean is travelling across the country trying to rally the faithful and undecided for the Congressional election in 2006 and the Presidential election in 2008.

On foreign policy, Dean said newly transformed US-India relations in recent years had a lot to do with policies adopted by New Delhi as much or more, than actions undertaken by Washington to push the relationship forward.

On outsourcing -- where the perception persists that Democrats are vehemently against it -- Dean said the party stood for free and fair trade and found India much more palatable than China.

...

On outsourcing, there was a perception that the Democrats were against outsourcing and it was perceived as India-bashing in a sense. How do you feel about outsourcing?

We are not against outsourcing. But we are in favour of fair trade. Now India is not the problem.

The problem frankly is China. In India, you can join an independent trade union. You cannot do that in China.

In India there are environmental laws. Now, we prefer the environmental laws be more similar to the United States.

Trade is not the problem. The problem is fair trade. We need to have the same kinds of rules apply to protecting workers and protecting the environment in every country and not just in some and others. India is closer to the model than China is.

India is not the problem. The problem frankly is China

http://in.rediff.com/news/2005/sep/09inter1.htm

[treestar]

27. Like there are a limited number of jobs and the number of jobs never

grows. LOL, maybe the big Indian companies should stay home and not bring their business and the resulting activity (resulting in jobs) here.

The richer the Indians are, the more we can sell them crap. It does us no harm to see them prosper.

Where do Americans get the idea that for them to prosper, others have to suffer?

[Hekate]

3. On consideration, it seems as though Obama's missteps are about his being a "young" candidate...

...on the national stage.

At least that's how it's beginning to look to me. His campaign -- meaning not only himself but his entire staff and support network -- needs to mature in relation to a national audience. This kind of repeated misstep could begin to hurt him, and he would do well to gain control of it soon.

I continue to watch him with great interest. I'd love to have him as veep this time, and at his age he still has plenty of time to win the White House on his own. Edwards-Obama 2008, anyone?

As for taking on Hillary -- watch out. She said awhile ago that her policy is to hit back fast and hard when attacked directly or by innuendo.

Hekate

[TechBear_Seattle]

5. What is this "Obama memo"?

I don't think I've heard about this.

[draft_mario_cuomo]

10. The Obama campaign sent out a hit piece memo on HRC

They tried to send it to the press not for attribution, bungled it, and were caught red-handed. The memo, from my point of view and the vantage point of many, many South Asians, essentially race-baited against Indian-Americans for political gain by implying that HRC is "controlled" by an evil cabal of brown people hellbent on sending American jobs to a foreign nation because they are not "real" Americans and are loyal to a nation they do not live in...

[ieoeja]

14. It poked fun at a joke Hillary made for which she later apologized.

Hillary is apparently well known in certain circles for being a big asset in outsourcing IT jobs to India. So much so that she was jokingly introduced as the Senator of Punjab before a group in India. She started her remarks for saying that she probably could be elected as Senator in Punjab.

You can imagine how well received such remarks from a US Senator were back home. So she apologized. The whole thing was a one or two day news cycle.

Then a couple weeks ago her campaign finance disclosure showed that she receives a lot of money from the Indian-American community. The Obama campaign pointed this out to the media in the hopes of reviving the bad publicity she got earlier, including a reference to her as "Senator (D-Punjab)".

Hillary supporters in the Indian-American community are trying to turn the tables by claiming this is race baiting. They have been at it awhile now, but as your post shows, it isn't gaining any traction. It was, however, enough to get the Obama campaign to back off on this issue. So it wasn't a total waste of time.

And it gives one DU poster something to do. Ad nauseum.

[draft_mario_cuomo]

15. "it isn't gaining any traction". Did you read the OP?

==Then a couple weeks ago her campaign finance disclosure showed that she receives a lot of money from the Indian-American community. The Obama campaign pointed this out to the media in the hopes of reviving the bad publicity she got earlier, including a reference to her as "Senator (D-Punjab)".

Hillary supporters in the Indian-American community are trying to turn the tables by claiming this is race baiting.==

It is race-baiting. What else can you call criticizing a candidate for receiving a lot of support from an ethnic group?

I find it amusing that Obama supporters think they know what is best for Indian-Americans (what does Deepak Chopra know about the community, right? The real expert is Obama's spokesman). Those who were targeted have spoken loud and clear about what they think about the memo.

[maximusveritas]

7. I don't think it's accurate to say

that Indian-Americans are rallying around Hillary because of the memo. She almsot certainly already had their support.

As an Indian-American myself, I found nothing offensive about the memo. None of my friends who hadn't already decided on a Presidential candidate found it offensive either. I certainly wouldn't let it affect my Presidential decision, even if I was offended.

[draft_mario_cuomo]

9. Obama was making inroads until the memo

I, Chopra, and many others were offended. Of course not 100% of people in any group are going to agree on an issue. Still, it is self-evident that this cost Obama votes and millions of dollars as the small, but affluent, Indian-American community solidly walked into the open arms of the Clinton camp.

[Ethelk2044]

18. He will continue to make them

[draft_mario_cuomo]

20. How many millions of dollars did he lose by race-baiting?

The calculation, as it always is in instances of race-baiting, is the candidates' gains among the general population will offset the loss among the targeted group. That backfired since this did substantial damage to the Obama brand and his talk--and that is just what it is, talk--about a "new kind of politics." Indian-Americans who were on the fence or pro-Obama shifted in droves to HRC and Obama gained nothing among the general population. In fact, the gains he made during 4 months of campaigning seem to have been erased by memogate and his ties to Rezko.

[maximusveritas]

25. You have no evidence for that

"Indian-Americans who were on the fence or pro-Obama shifted in droves to HRC and Obama gained nothing among the general population."
You're just making stuff up because you want it to be true. There is no evidence that even a single voter switched their vote based on this. I'm an Indian-American and I support Obama more than I did before and I resent the efforts of people like you to turn this into more than it is.

[draft_mario_cuomo]

26. There is evidence

This is the second multi-million dollar fund-raiser in which turnout was boosted because of the Obama attack. There is also anecdotal evidence. Even the South Asians for Obama group criticized the memo!

==Although intended to draw attention to Senator Clinton's hypocritical position on outsourcing, the memo was laced with criticism of Senator Clinton's longstanding support among the Indian American community.

In addition to being offended by the clear anti-Indian sentiment in the memo, we were particularly disturbed because the memo flies in the face of what we respect most about Senator Obama -- his inclusive message and his ability to relate to people of all backgrounds.==

http://marcambinder.theatlantic.com/archives/2007/06/taken_issue_with_the_response.php

While they, not surprisingly, did not cease supporting him, the fact that even his most die-hard South Asian supporters agree with the fundamental criticism of the memo's race-baiting speaks volumes about how clear-cut the racism in the memo was.

The evidence with respect to the general population is clear. His poll numbers have dropped to where they were before he began campaigning...That is not only because of memogate but also because of the Rezko/Obama corruption stories.

=I'm an Indian-American and I support Obama more than I did before and I resent the efforts of people like you to turn this into more than it is.==

That is tough talk for someone with 15 posts and a disabled profile. I am South Asian and I was enraged that a leading Democrat would resort to such racist tactics. It is one thing to see a Republican do it, but I never thought a serious Democratic candidate would do so. We are isolated individuals, though. The fact that even his die-hard South Asian supporters agreed with the fundamental criticism of the racism in the memo says it all. If that is what his die-hard supporters thought, what do you think most other Indian-Americans thought about it?

[Ethelk2044]

16. Media ignore key details in Obama/Rezko letter story

On June 13, the Chicago Sun-Times reported that Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL), while serving as an Illinois state senator in 1998, "did a political favor" for Chicago Democratic fundraiser Antoin "Tony" Rezko by writing letters to state and local government officials in support of a Chicago housing project proposed by Rezko's company, New Kenwood LLC. The Sun-Times asserted that the "letters appear to contradict a statement last December from Obama, who told the Chicago Tribune that, in all the years he's known Rezko, 'I've never done any favors for him.' '' In reporting on this story, however, several media outlets omitted statements included in the Sun-Times article that challenge the paper's assertion that Obama performed a "favor" for Rezko -- specifically, Obama campaign spokesman Bill Burton's claim that "I don't know that anyone specifically asked him to write this letter," and Rezko's attorney's claim that Rezko "never spoke with, nor sought a letter from, Senator Obama in connection with that project."

In October 2006, Rezko was indicted on charges that he "used his influence as one of Gov. Rod Blagojevich's closest advisers and fundraisers to seek millions of dollars in kickbacks and campaign donations from firms seeking state business," according to the Chicago Tribune.

From the June 13 Sun-Times article, headlined "Obama's letters for Rezko":

As a state senator, Barack Obama wrote letters to city and state officials supporting his political patron Tony Rezko's successful bid to get more than $14 million from taxpayers to build apartments for senior citizens.

The deal included $855,000 in development fees for Rezko and his partner, Allison S. Davis, Obama's former boss, according to records from the project, which was four blocks outside Obama's state Senate district.

Obama's letters, written nearly nine years ago, for the first time show the Democratic presidential hopeful did a political favor for Rezko -- a longtime friend, campaign fund-raiser and client of the law firm where Obama worked -- who was indicted last fall on federal charges that accuse him of demanding kickbacks from companies seeking state business under Gov. Blagojevich.

The letters appear to contradict a statement last December from Obama, who told the Chicago Tribune that, in all the years he's known Rezko, "I've never done any favors for him.''

The Sun-Times, however, went on to quote Burton claiming that he did not "know that anyone specifically asked him to write this letter," and Rezko attorney Joseph Duffy saying that Rezko had not asked Obama to write the letters -- undermining the article's claim that the letters constituted "a political favor":

On Tuesday, Bill Burton, press secretary for Obama's presidential campaign, said the letters Obama wrote in support of the development weren't intended as a favor to Rezko or Davis.

"This wasn't done as a favor for anyone," Burton said in a written statement. "It was done in the interests of the people in the community who have benefited from the project.

"I don't know that anyone specifically asked him to write this letter nine years ago," the statement said. "There was a consensus in the community about the positive impact the project would make and Obama supported it because it was going to help people in his district. ... They had a wellness clinic and adult day-care services, as well as a series of social services for residents. It's a successful project. It's meant a lot to the community, and he's proud to have supported it.''

The development, called the Cottage View Terrace apartments, opened five years ago at 4801 S. Cottage Grove, providing 97 apartments for low-income senior citizens.

Asked about the Obama letters, Rezko's attorney, Joseph Duffy, said Tuesday, "Mr. Rezko never spoke with, nor sought a letter from, Senator Obama in connection with that project."

While reporting on this story, several media outlets left out either Burton's or Duffy's statement, or both. The June 13 edition of ABC News' political online newsletter The Note cited the Sun-Times' claim that the "letters appear to contradict" Obama's claim that he has never done a favor for Rezko, but did not quote either Burton or Duffy. Rather, The Note reported that "he Obama camp is casting it as an attempt to increase housing for seniors." From the June 13 edition of "The Note":

Obama wrote letters to local officials on behalf of a project controlled by indicted real-estate dealmaker Tony Rezko, the Chicago Sun-Times' Tim Novak reports. "The letters appear to contradict a statement last December from Obama, who told the Chicago Tribune that, in all the years he's known Rezko, 'I've never done any favors for him.'" (The Obama camp is casting it as an attempt to increase housing for seniors.)

A June 14 New York Times article and a June 13 report on CNN's The Situation Room featured statements from Burton regarding the letters, but neither addressed whether Rezko had asked Obama to write the letters, nor mentioned Duffy's statement.

From the Times article:



Mr. Obama's spokesman, Bill Burton, said the senator was one of several politicians who intervened because the project was important to local residents.

Mr. Burton also said in a statement that the senator "has held himself to a high standard and has had a career in public service fighting for the toughest possible ethical rules."

"This is not a record changed by anything that has happened to Tony Rezko," Mr. Burton said.

From the June 13 edition of CNN's The Situation Room:

WOLF BLITZER (anchor): There are also some new questions about Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama's ties to a Chicago developer. Tony Rezko is a former Obama supporter and donor now under federal indictment. A published report says Obama once wrote letters in support of Rezko Development, while Obama was serving in the state Senate.

CNN's Keith Oppenheim is watching this story for us. Keith is joining us now live. Keith, so, update our viewers who are not familiar with what's going on. What's going on? Because in Chicago, at least, this has been an uproar of sorts.

OPPENHEIM: It has. And really, there are a couple of possibilities as to what this could mean for Obama's campaign. One is that all this about Tony Rezko and his connections to him just may be a slight tarnish to Obama's reputation, if at all. But a bad scenario for Senator Obama is that this story could be an ongoing liability, one that could really put the candidate's credibility into question.

[draft_mario_cuomo]

17. What does Obama/Rezko corruption have to do with the race-baiting memo? nt

[Ethelk2044]

19. Everything. The memo was not race baiting it was stating facts

Sorry if you can not read.

[draft_mario_cuomo]

22. Willie Horton was stating facts--and was race-baiting

The notion that factual accuracy and race-baiting are mutually exclusive is false. Ask Deepak Chopra and others. ;)

[Ethelk2044]

24. No He pointed out the Lies that were made as well. You need to go to Media

Matters.

[hughee99]

21. A little off topic, but...

Bankers don't have an interest in outsourcing?

http://www.forbes.com/work/newswire/2003/10/13/rtr1106906.html
http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/india/article.cfm?articleid=4187
http://www.computerworld.com/managementtopics/outsourcing/story/0,10801,75602,00.html
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/646383.cms

[retread]

23. Is Deepak Chopra advising Senator Clinton on her healthcare plan? n/t