Barack Obama Calls India Memo Attacking Hillary Clinton 'Dumb Mistake'(Barack's "Punjab Moment?")

NEWTON, Iowa — Democratic presidential contender Barack Obama on Monday said his campaign made a "dumb mistake" when it circulated a memo criticizing rival Hillary Rodham Clinton's financial ties to India. In an interview with The Associated Press, Obama disavowed the memo which carried the headline — "Hillary Clinton (D-Punjab) — and referred to Bill and Hillary Clintons' investments in India; her fundraising among Indian-Americans; and the former president's $300,000 in speech fees from Cisco, a company that has moved U.S. jobs to India. "It was a dumb mistake on our campaign's part and I made it clear to my staff in no uncertain terms that it was a mistake," Obama told the AP in a brief interview in which he referred to the memo as "unnecessarily caustic." Last Thursday, Obama's campaign sent the memo to reporters, demanding that it not be attributed to their campaign. The Clinton campaign obtained the document and sent it to journalists. Since then, it has created a furor in the Indian-American community and raised questions about Obama's claims that he is above attack politics. "It is not reflective of the long-standing relationship I have had with the Indian-American community," Obama said in the interview. "The issue of outsourcing is a genuine and important issue but to refer to one particular country was, I think, an error and I let all of us know that we've got to be more careful about how we communicate," he said. ...

So you imply that Americans are specifically not hired because of their higher salary demands and not because not even a fraction of them pursue PhDs or even MS programs in the hi-tech sector ?

Do you even read any Tech journals from IEEE ? How many papers do you see written by American citizens ? Or do you even see any American graduate student members ? How many patents are filed by Americans through their schools ? A significant majority of technical research in American grad schools is done by foreigners - mostly from China, Taiwan, Korea and India. Who is stopping American students from joining American grad schools ? Indians ? Chinese ? Affirmative action doesnt apply here. If any American student wants to go for higher ed, he is more likely to get dozens of fellowships only available to US nationals. Foreigners donot receive any fellowships and have to rely on measly stipends, which are sometimes discontinued without any warning. So whats stopping them ?

Should companies be compelled to hire a local undergraduate who would not know anything about design or analysis rather than a PhD from Asia who spends 7 years in an American Grad School learning precisely the same techniques for an R & D position ?

Its easy to simplify issues by blaming foreigners and confusing the issue of outsourcing back end jobs with the general malaise affecting American youths’ lack of penchant for higher education in technical fields.

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