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.

Asian American org denounces Obama, calls for defeat

S. B. Woo, leader of the 80-20 Initiative, a nationwide Asian American organization, sent out the letter appended below calling on Asian Americans to denounce Barack Obama.

80-20 actually is overwhelmingly a Chinese American organization that speaks out for Asian American causes.

They condemned Obama for refusing to answer six questions that are listed below.

Call To Action -- Defeat Obama
Save this newsletter for forwarding to friends today & later

In response to Sen. Obama's steadfast refusal to address the grievance
faced by Asian Ams, and given that the presidential primary season will
begin in 7 days, the Board of 80-20 has voted unanimously to defeat Sen.
Obama's candidacy in the Democratic primary unless he replies to
OUR questionnaire with all yeses. This resolution has been formally
transmitted to Sen. Obama.

Until further notice, please vote in the Dem. Primary for Senators Biden
or Clinton or Dodd or Edwards or Gravels who have readily replied
to OUR questionnaire with all yeses. They even emphasized that
remedying such inequities was one reason they wanted to be the
President. Regrettably, none of the Republican candidates have replied
with a single yes yet, so they have not earned our support.

In addition, please forward this newsletter to your friends and
relatives in Iowa, New Hampshire, California and the other states.
Ask them to in turn forward it to their friends & relatives.

U.S. politics functions on carrots and sticks. Asian Ams need to get with
it. Obama ignores our legitimate grievance, so we must defeat his
candidacy. Counting on you. Use your address book to do your absolute
best in spread this message NOW!

Respectfully yours,

S.B. Woo
Member of the Exec. Comm, Founding President of the 80-20 Initiative.

Why Asian Ams Need to Defeat Sen. Obama's Candidacy

Sen. Obama gave almost farcical reasons why he would not reply to
OUR questionnaire. The reasons given are

1) "He is black." Hence he has to be extra careful in matters dealing with
the minorities to avoid the suspicion of the majority. So is Sen. Obama
hoping to build his presidency on the backs of Asian Ams suffering
unequal opportunity in workplaces?! How arrogant!

2) "When he is the president, an Asian American will have a better
chance to be the president." Is it logical to talk about Asian Ams' chance
to be the President when he is not even willing to assure us of equal
opportunity in workplaces? How blind ambition deprives an
inexperienced politician of logic?!

3) His staff is fond of saying that "Obama has a brother-in-law in Conrad
Ng, and it'll be such a honor for Asian Americans if Obama gets into
the White House." Really? Did Obama select his brother-in-law or does
Sen. Obama think Asian Americans live in ancient feudal China?

Sen. Obama often intones the "fierce urgency of now," a quote from
Martin Luther King. However, he got it all wrong. Dr. King used the phrase
to emphasize the urgency of equal opportunity for all Americans. Obama
uses it to advance his candidacy while giving benign neglect to equal
opportunity for Asian Ams and perhaps even African Americans.

Sen. Obama too inexperienced to be our presidency. He is not ready.
He has yet to develop the character and courage to stand up for America's
core value -- equal opportunity.

Sen. Obama trivializes his "inexperience" by pointing to our youngest
President, John F. Kennedy. How wrong Obama is. Kennedy served in the
House and Senate for 14 years, from1946 to 1960, before being elected
the President. Obama has only 3 years' experience in national politics --
one quarter the national experience of our youngest President -- JFK.

The 6 questions that Sen. Obama refused to answer

(1) If elected, will you direct the Labor Secretary to hold public hearings
regarding the validity of the huge amount of statistical data strongly
suggesting discriminatory practices against Asian Americans in workplaces
today? (Yes/No)

(2) If the data were shown valid, will you issue a directive to the Labor
Department asking it to focus on enforcing Executive Order 11246 on
behalf of Asian Americans, since in the past similar efforts have already
been made on behalf of women and other minorities? (Yes/No)

(3) Two years after you have issued the directive described in item 2, will
you meet with a group of Asian American national organizations, put
together by 80-20 and the Labor Department, to review the progress in
extending equal opportunity to Asian Americans? (Yes/No)

(4) If elected, will you within your first term of office, seek to increase the
nomination of qualified Asian Americans to serve as Article III life-tenured
federal judges, whenever such vacancies are available until the current
dismal situation is significantly remedied? [To put things in perspective,
not meaning to imply quota, presently there are 0.6% Asian Am. Federal
judges, while the Asian Am. population is 4.5% and the % of Asian Am
legal professionals in laws firms of 100 or large is at least 5.3%.] (Yes/No)

(5) If elected, will you seek to nominate, within your first term of office,
qualified Asian Americans to serve as Article III Circuit Judges, whenever
there are vacancies in those positions, until the current dismal situation is
significantly remedied? [To put things in perspective, none of the 179
Article III Circuit judges is an Asian American.] (Yes/No)

(6) If elected, will you consider nominating a qualified Asian America to
the Supreme Court, when a vacancy occurs? Two years upon your taking
the office, will you meet with a group of Asian American leaders, put
together jointly by 80-20 and other Asian American national organizations
to review the progress in adding Asian American Federal judges? (Yes/No)

Barack Obama: Dahil Sa Iyo

Here is a video I made for Filipino Americans for Barack Obama. It features the late Nat King Cole singing the Filipino classic song "Dahil Sa Iyo."

Barack is a cosponsor and advocate of the Filipino Veterans Equity Act of 2007 ( HR-760, and S.1315 ).