Obama apologizes over 'Hillary Clinton (D-Punjab)' memo The Associated Press
Published: June 19, 2007
NEWTON, Iowa: The Democratic presidential contender Barack Obama said his campaign made a "dumb mistake" when it circulated a memo criticizing Hillary Rodham Clinton's financial ties to India.
Obama on Monday disavowed the memo, which was headlined, "Hillary Clinton (D-Punjab)," a play on the standard reference to a candidate's party and constituency. The memo referred to investments in India by former President Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton; her fund-raising 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 said, referring to the memo as "unnecessarily caustic."
The memo has created a furor in the Indian-American community and raised questions about Obama's claims that he is above attack politics, which are epitomized by secretly distributing opposition research about a rival.
Obama also faulted his staff this year over comments made in a dispute with the Clinton camp over a Hollywood donor, David Geffen.
Obama's campaign sent the memo to some reporters Thursday, demanding that it not be attributed to the campaign. The Clinton campaign got a copy and made it public.
"It is not reflective of the longstanding relationship I have had with the Indian-American community," Obama said.
"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.
On his Web site, Obama said he was not aware of the contents of the memo before it was distributed. The Illinois senator said that he was responsible for the mistake and that the campaign had taken action "to prevent errors like this from happening in the future." The campaign said the new policy was to ensure that senior staff would review materials before public distribution.
Obama was campaigning in Iowa on Monday. Stopping in the town of Newton, which was rocked by the closure of a Maytag home-appliances plant, he called for new efforts to create jobs and end tax subsidies for companies that shift jobs overseas.
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