Sen. Clinton (D-Punjab)

Speaking of racism. From the archives:

June 15, 2007
Sen. Clinton (D-Punjab)
Posted by JUSTIN MILLER | E-Mail This | Permalink | Email Author

An opposition document from Barack Obama's campaign makes Hillary Clinton out to be a tool of Indian business interests and donors, mocking her as "Sen. Clinton (D-Punjab)," reports the New York Daily News, which received the document from the Clinton campaign.

The Punjab reference came from a joke Clinton made herself at a fundraiser hosted by an Indian doctor when she said "I can certainly run for the Senate seat in Punjab and win easily, after being introduced by Singh as the Senator not only from New York but also Punjab."

Most of the document accuses the Clintons' of investing in Indian companies that outsource jobs to India. One article said Clinton helped outsourcing pioneer Tata Consulting and then quotes her as saying the company "actually brought jobs to Buffalo. Outsourcing does work both ways." Another point said Clinton accepted $60,000 in contributions from employees of Cisco Systems, which laid off American workers to hire Indian "techies." All of the points in the oppo doc quote news stories.

http://time-blog.com/real_clear_politics/2007/06/sen_clinton_dpunjab.html

"But along the way, he has had to resist continual pressure even from inside his own campaign to take a harder and harsher line against his rivals, Hillary Clinton in particular. On the bus the night before the Iowa caucuses, Obama recounted one difficult episode. Early in the campaign, he lectured his staff that he wasn't going to tolerate any bashing of his rivals—no slipping anonymous snarky quotes to reporters, no feeding nasty gossip to bloggers. (Of course, Obama staffers, like all campaign aides, can't resist swapping choice bits of gossip with eager reporters.) But last summer Obama's campaign was stalling after a series of lackluster debate performances. His staff pleaded with him to go after Clinton. Then, a sleazy anonymous oppo-research memo, sourced to the Obama campaign, started making the rounds among reporters. It suggested Bill Clinton had profited from companies that outsourced jobs to India, while Hillary raked in donations from Indian-Americans. The memo was crudely titled "Hillary Clinton (D-Punjab)."

The Clinton campaign was justifiably angry, and seized on the episode as proof that Obama had abandoned his vaunted "politics of hope" and had offended Indian-Americans in the process. Obama was furious with his staff. "Some of my roommates in college were Indian and Pakistani," he told NEWSWEEK. "I had to call some of my best friends and explain that my campaign wasn't engaged in xenophobia." Obama held a come-to-Jesus meeting with his senior aides at his Chicago headquarters and vented his anger. "If you're even going close to the line, you better ask me first," he recalled saying. "That was the most angry I've been in this campaign."'

http://www.newsweek.com/id/84581