Obama India Memo on the Money - Chicago Tribune

From the Full Article at the Chicago Tribune:

"I, too, am disappointed in Barack Obama over his handling of the "Punjab" memo.

Obama, our junior U.S. senator and a strong candidate for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination, has drawn fire from the political right and left for a sharp-elbowed piece of opposition research released by his campaign last week.

Under the provocative headline, "Hillary Clinton (D-Punjab)'s personal financial and political ties to India," the three-page document attacks his leading opponent point-by-point for her allegedly too-cozy ties with businesses and business leaders who are profiting from the outsourcing of U.S. jobs to the Asian nation.

Critics called it "nativist" and "a racist, xenophobic hit," and the chairman of the United States India Political Action Committee sent a letter to Obama's headquarters in Chicago decrying the dissemination of "hurtful stereotypes."

What disappointed me, though, was not the memo, but Obama's retreat.

The Des Moines Register reported that Obama branded the memo "stupid" and "caustic" during a meeting Monday with that newspaper's editors and reporters. Though he didn't see the memo before it was released, he told the Register, "I take responsibility for it, as does our campaign. And we quickly apologized and are communicating that in various circles around the country."

Oh, humbug.

The memo, which you can read in full online at chicagotribune.com/zorn, is neither stupid nor caustic. In fact, it's numbingly detailed reading after the headline and zesty introductory paragraph -- lots of names, dates, dollar figures and footnotes."

I was ready to drop this and move on, but now I'm trying to dig up a copy of the memo and will sort it out as soon as possible.