Opinion: Splitting the Punjabi difference between Hillary and Barack
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Something that hasn’t been mentioned in the pie fight over Barack Obama’s infamous (D-Punjab) memo: The mainly agricultural Punjab region does not appear to be a major factor in the concerns over outsourcing to which Obama and Clinton have both, at various times, payed demagogic lip service. If we’re talking economics it’s all about Karnataka, or maybe Andhra Pradesh. Can we just state the obvious? Neither Clinton nor Obama has a clue about Punjab, and the reason Clinton made her original getting-elected-in-Punjab wisecrack and Obama used it to smear her is that they’re both thinking of Daddy Warbucks’ lethal manservant.
That’s just the tip of what the two candidates don’t know. Kerry Howley puts some perspective on the matter by noting that Obama should be apologizing not only for putting down Indian Americans but for pandering to anti-trade buffoons:
It would be a mistake to confuse the posturing of presidential politics with actual policy. Obama’s views on trade remain buried in the equivocating palaver he advances as policy positions. Clinton voted against CAFTA and expressed opposition to the U.S.-South Korea free trade agreement. She has attacked the Bush administration for saying that outsourcing makes the economy stronger. If Clinton’s rhetoric is less hateful, her policies may not be much different. Still, the willingness of campaigns to stoke fear of peaceful exchange with outsiders is disconcerting. During the 2004 Democratic National Convention—Obama’s coming out party—the Illinois state senator spoke out against “those who are preparing to divide us, the spin masters, the negative ad peddlers.” It’s nice, I guess, that Obama wants to bring people together. Now perhaps his research team can find a social glue superior to a shared xenophobia.
Related: Rock to the mellow tones of Panjabi Hit Squad.