Opinion: Barack Obama apologizes for attack on Clinton
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(UPDATE: Note to Readers. Click here.)
Every political campaign has someone--often many someones--assigned to look into every nook-and-cranny of their opponent’s life and affairs, all kinds of affairs. When they find damaging materials, they try to get them circulated by slipping them to reporters, usually with a promise of anonymity.
Sen. Barack Obama is now scrambling to soothe hurt feelings among some of his strongest supporters in the wake of a controversial attack memo last week poking fun at Sen. Hillary Clinton, his chief rival for the Democratic presidential nomination, for her ties to India and Indian-Americans.
Obama was working the apology phones today and planning a formal apology, distancing himself from the memo, which was headlined, ‘HILLARY CLINTON (D-PUNJAB)’S PERSONAL FINANCIAL AND POLITICAL TIES TO INDIA,’ It was prepared by the campaign’s opposition research department and distributed to reporters last week in exchange for a promise that reporters not reveal the source. So much for trusting the reporters.
The memo got out.
How? A reporter showed it to the Clinton campaign, who showed it to more reporters without seeking anonymity. So the original source was outted.
Already today, in an appearance before the Des Moines Register editorial board, Obama called the memo ‘stupid and caustic’ and said it was prepared by his staff but neither he nor his senior staff saw it before distribution. ‘It was a screw-up on the part of our research team,’ Obama said.
This afternoon, in a letter to Indian-Americans, Obama said the community’s feelings about the memo were ‘justified.’ He said the document, which appeared to attack Clinton for supporting outsourcing, did not reflect his views. ‘In sum, our campaign made a mistake,’ he wrote in a letter that he said should be distributed widely in the community. ‘Although I was not aware of the contents of the memo prior to its distribution, I consider the entire campaign - and in particular myself - responsible for the mistake. We have taken appropriate action to prevent errors like this from happening in the future.’
The group South Asians for Obama, closely affiliated with the Illinois senator’s campaign, had posted a scathing note late Sunday saying its members were ‘shocked and dismayed’ by the memo and ‘less than satisfied’ with the campaign’s initial responses over the weekend. Officials had said they regretted the tone but appreciated strong support from Indian-Americans.
‘The main thing people have a problem with is the implication that having ties to the Indian-American community, that fundraising from Indian-Americans in the United States, is a problem,’ a spokesman for the group, Dave Kumar, told the Times’ Peter Wallsten today. ‘It goes against the inclusive nature of the campaign, or what we view to be the inclusive nature of the campaign.’ To read Wallsten’s complete story, click here.
The attack memo was notable because Obama has previously pledged to run an attack-free campaign. In one appearance, Obama promised that his opposition research team would focus on contrasting candidates’ policy differences, not personal attacks. Obama has cited poor staff work before - most notably after he publicly chastised his own spokesman for engaging in a tit-for-tat exchange with the Clinton campaign after movie mogul David Geffen endorsed Obama.
Kumar said that, as of Monday, the group was satisfied that Obama was sufficiently and sincerely upset about the memo’s content. Kumar said he paid a recent visit to the Obama campaign headquarters and can understand how a memo was released without the senator’s direct knowledge.
‘I know there are people doing all sorts of opposition research, and lots of stuff goes out to the press that the senator isn’t looking at,’ he said.
--Andrew Malcolm