Obama campaign responds to Indian concerns over memo

Obama campaign manager David Plouffe responded to concerns by an Indian American group over the Obama memo leaked that attacked Hillary's support of outsourcing to India. The article from "The Swamp" is appended below:

U.S.-India group sends letter questioning Obama

Posted by John McCormick and Christi Parsons

Sen. Barack Obama’s presidential campaign expressed regret late Friday for the “tone” used in recently disclosed campaign documents that raised questions about rival Democrat Sen. Hillary Clinton’s ties to India and Indian Americans.

The statement from Obama’s campaign manager came in the wake of complaints from an Indian American group, whose leader complained earlier in the day about “anti-Indian American stereotyping” in the documents.

“There cannot be a suggestion that Indian-Americans are somehow taboo,” said Sanjay Puri, chairman of the 50,000-member U.S.-India Political Action Committee. “That is not the message we want any leader to be presenting.”

In a letter to Obama’s campaign, the group asked the Illinois Democrat to "respond directly" to the reports and to "let us know if indeed your staff is promoting these hurtful stereotypes."

At issue are documents distributed to some news organizations by Obama aides on a not-for-attribution basis that offered a harsh analysis of the Clintons. One appeared under the headline “Hillary Clinton (D-Punjab)’s personal financial and political ties to India.”

A copy of the documents was obtained by Clinton’s campaign, which then provided them to the Tribune and other news organizations. Obama’s campaign has confirmed the authenticity of the documents.

The Obama campaign said it regrets parts of the campaign-generated papers.

"Barack Obama has been a longtime friend of the Indian-American community and our campaign is fortunate to have strong support from Indian-Americans across the country,” Obama campaign manager David Plouffe said in a statement. “The intent of the document was to discuss the issue of outsourcing, but we regret the tone that parts of the document took.”

The release of the opposition research by the Obama camp was prompted by the Thursday release of new personal financial documents by Clinton's campaign.

Here are the documents:

Document 1: Download file

Document 2: Download file

And here is a video with Obama's own take on opposition research.