More on 80-20 anti-Obama campaign

In response to the email sent out by the 80-20 Initiative today, an Asian American woman blogger at reappropriate.com, who also happens to volunteer for the Obama campaign, writes:

http://www.reappropriate.com/?p=895

Frankly, this email rubbed me the wrong way. The email is representative of the tone of the emails out of the 80/20 Initiative, that were deeply critical of Obama long before Obama had decided to (or not to) respond to 80/20’s questionnaire.

Although earlier emails should have been objective towards Obama, they nonetheless emphasized the myth of Obama’s inexperience and touted textbook Clinton attacks against Obama’s candidacy. Moreover, 80/20 does not cite or provide a full text of the Obama campaign’s response — and yet attacks those supposed responses with inflammatory rhetoric that might as well have been written by Clinton herself.

While I understand 80/20 choosing not to endorse Obama for not responding to their questionnaire, is it unnecessary and disingenuous to spread malicious rumours such as the ones quoted above, suggesting Obama is actively working against civil rights “for Asian Ams and perhaps even African Americans”.

As I have said before, I think the mission statement of 80/20 is commendable, but their tactics have been questionable in the past, and have hit the point of downright despicable, now. Less than half of the Asian American community came out to vote in 2004: the last thing we need is a movement that disrespects the political process with slander and discourages Asian Americans from making an educated vote.

Finally, as an Obama volunteer, I was surprised to hear 80/20’s cited responses out of the Obama for America campaign regarding their lack of response. Knowing Obama’s campaign fairly well, it was disconcerting to think that the Obama campaign would actually respond to 80/20 with statements that Obama need not respond because “he is black”. So, I requested a copy of the official response from 80/20, from which these quotes are being taken. After all, if Asian Americans are being expected to actually band together and try and defeat Obama, we deserve the full response.

However, my instinct is that these “quotes” are simply yet another instance of 80/20 hedging the facts to attack Obama’s candidacy: either paraphrases disguised as actual quotes or statements taken out of context.

I wrote to the Obama campaign last week with a request for further information regarding their decision not to respond to the 80/20 questionnaire (the comments of this post contain the text of my letter). Within a week, I received this response, which I am reproducing in full:

Dear Friend,

Thank you for contacting Obama for America regarding the 80-20 Educational Foundation questionnaire and Barack Obama’s commitment to Asian Americans.

Barack Obama has worked to advance the interests of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPIs) his entire life. Born in Hawaii, a majority AAPI state, spending part of his childhood in Indonesia, having Asian Americans in his multi-racial and multi-ethnic family, and working with the vibrant AAPI communities of Chicago, Obama understands the aspirations and needs of AAPIs. As president, Obama will work closely with AAPI leaders and advocate for the top priorities for AAPIs across the nation.

Barack Obama is committed to appointing qualified AAPIs to high-level positions in his administration, and he will strengthen the White House Initiative on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders. Barack Obama will also build upon his work as a civil rights lawyer and community organizer to end racial discrimination and advance equal opportunity in the workplace and the federal government. Finally, as a former constitutional law lecturer, Obama understands the importance of a diverse judiciary and he is committed to increasing the representation of qualified minorities and women, including qualified Asian Americans, when there are vacancies in the federal judiciary, including the Supreme Court.

We regret that our staff was unable to reach agreement with leadership of the 80-20 Educational Foundation over concerns with the wording of the questionnaire, despite the fact that modifications to the questionnaire were made for other campaigns. The Obama campaign is proud of its efforts to reach out and engage the Asian American community by providing an official statement to the Asian American Action Fund (AAA Fund) (http://www.aaa-fund.org/campaigns/president08/index.asp#obama), participating in the Iowa Heartland Presidential Forum, creating an Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) National Leadership Council of key AAPI activists around the country to advise the campaign on AAPI outreach, and sending top campaign surrogates to appear at candidate forums sponsored by Asian Pacific Americans for Progress (APAP) and the AAA Fund. The Obama campaign is also the only major campaign to have a campaign-sponsored Asian Americans outreach webpage linked off of its main website. The Obama campaign is also proud of its endorsement by the AAA Fund of Greater Chicago.

Senator Obama looks forward to continuing his long record of advocacy for Asian Americans as president.

Sincerely,

Obama for America

First of all, I was very happy to see how rapidly I received a sincere, detailed letter from the campaign in response to my query. Despite the fact that the headquarters must be receiving thousands of letters like mine every day, I am happy to see that staff were still able to give me a response that addressed my concerns in such a timely fashion.

Secondly, I was extremely delighted to have Obama’s campaign commit to the meat of 80/20’s questionnaire: the appointment of qualified Asian Americans (and women!) to the cabinet and judgeships, when possible, as well as maintaining an open line of communication to key Asian American political leadership.

From the letter, it’s clear that the problem was in the wording of the questionnaire. And if it’s true that 80/20 was unwilling to make changes to the questionnaire for the Obama campaign, but was for other campaigns, than it suggests that 80/20 might have been looking to back a different candidate to begin with and was just seeking an excuse to go on the offensive.

In either case, comparing the correspondance I’ve got from both 80/20 and the Obama campaign, I think I’m going to have to continue my personal support for Senator Obama’s candidacy. I think it’s clear from the letter that an Obama presidency would be extremely friendly towards APIA issues, and that Obama maintains a high commitment towards our sociopolitical causes, even when his campaign is unwilling to be bullied into pandering.