A confrontation I imagine in my head set to the tune of Beat It by MJ (its funnier in my head though):
South Asians for Obama: You better bring it you desi Republicans
South Asians for McCain: Oh. It’s been brung.
Remember when I wrote the following in my post about South Asians for Obama back in February of 2007 (yes, a year and a half ago)?:
In order to be fair and balanced I thought I’d link to South Asians for Rudy, or McCain, or Mitt but I wasn’t able to find such fundraising sites. I would be forever grateful to anyone that could alert me to such a development though. [Link]
Well, this week (less than 100 days before the election) desi supporters of John McCain have answered the challenge! IndiaWest reports:
Indian supporters of Republican presidential candidate John McCain are trickling out of the woodwork to battle the groundswell of support created by the South Asians for Obama campaign.
Last month, Suresh Kumar, CEO of NexAge Technologies USA in Iselin, New Jersey, launched South Asians for McCain. The nascent organization has picked up 85 members in the three weeks since its inception.
On the West Coast, Atul Saini, co-chairman of the Santa Clara County Business Leaders for John McCain, is attempting to mobilize the large contingent of South Asian business people in the Silicon Valley to vote for his candidate. [Link]
It is interesting to hear which issues motivate these two founders:
McCain is open to free trade, said Kumar, adding that his candidate was not opposed to work going overseas as long as it benefited U.S. interests. The veteran senator also supports lower taxes, which is especially important to small entrepreneurs, said Kumar, adding that “Lower taxes allow free enterprise to flourish.”
Most important to Kumar was the issue of terrorism. “Terrorism is the over-arching threat to civilized society and there is no focus on this issue as far as the Obama campaign is concerned,” he said, adding that McCain recognizes the need for a coordinated global effort to combat terrorism…Saini said Indians are natural McCain supporters. “We come from India and we are very conservative, business-minded people,” he said, adding that the enterprise-friendly initiatives of McCain’s platform supported South Asian entrepreneurs. [Link]
Kumar has also penned an essay on the site titled: Obama Vs. McCain : What my heart tells me. Here is an excerpt:
Just like the millions who supported his call for change, I too like and respect Senator Obama. It is hard not to. He is smart, highly intelligent, has tons of charisma, is eloquent, has a compelling vision and he appears to be sincere about bringing about real change to the political system. More importantly, he is executing his campaign very well as was evident from his recent visit to Europe and Middle East. To borrow a term from Physics, my favorite science subject, Senator Obama, represents ‘Potential Energy’ that has been building up over the past many years that not yet been unleashed fully. The potential is immense, but the risk is that we don’t fully know the quality and quantity of the energy. On the other hand in Senator McCain, we have a decorated war hero from a family who has all answered the nation’s call of duty, including his son who is a US Marine. He is one amongst the many brave who has given their flesh and blood so that people like me can enjoy our daily freedoms. Senator McCain has demonstrated time and again by going against his party and even President Bush on important issues that the nick name of ‘Maverick’ was well earned. [Link]
As an engineer, I can truly appreciate his poetic use of physics. Also interesting from the SAFM website is this picture on the “About” page that looks like the spinning wheel in the center of India’s flag, and features many skin tones. South Asians and Whites (and others?) together I guess:
Yet another good section of the website explains why SAFM is necessary:
- It is often taken for granted by the media that regardless of the candidate, the majority of the South Asians in the US vote Democratic as the party is perceived to be friendlier to immigrants. Our experiences indicate that just like the general American electorate, a large number of South Asian Americans are independents and vote for candidates based on their merits.
- While the mainstream as well as the South Asian media in the US has given a lot of attention to Senator Obama, it has failed to give a balanced coverage for Senator McCain. It is well documented in various US census reports that a vast majority of South Asian are immigrants who have come in to the US over the last two decades are may not be fully familiar with Senator McCain and his service to the nation.
- Another reason that we have launched southasiansformccain.com is that, in our estimate, while the Obama campaign has effectively rolled out the campaign among the South Asian’s in the US, the McCain 2008 campaign has hardly done any worth while outreach to the South Asian Community in the US. Our informal inquires with few South Asian community leaders indicate that none of them have not been contacted by anyone from the McCain Campaign. Apart from a junior staffer at the McCain HQ who is in charge of outreach to the splintered and diverse Asia-Pacific community, the McCain campaign does not seem to have made any efforts to reach out to the influential South Asian community in the US, such as the Asian Indian community. Our attempts to reach the McCain campaign to get specific information have been unsuccessful. The primary objective of SouthAsiansForMcCain.com is to try to address the problems listed above. [Link]
That last point is very true. Even Karl Rove advised McCain to bring attention to the fact that he is South Asian friendly. But seriously, if you don’t actively court an increasingly tuned-in segment of the electorate, especially a wealthy segment, of course you are going to lose them. In another interview they further stress this point:
Apart from a junior staffer at the McCain HQ who is in charge of outreach to the splintered and diverse Asia-Pacific community, the McCain campaign does not seem to have made any efforts to reach out to the influential South Asian community in the US, such as the Asian Indian community. Our attempts to reach the McCain campaign to get specific information have been unsuccessful. [Link]
Before I wrap up this post I would like to point out one rather surprising detail. If you are going to head SAFM you probably, I’m just saying, should be donating some big time money to his campaign, no? I mean, that would kind of inspire others who join to do the same, right? According to Open Secret, here is Kumar’s contribution record:
$300??
If you’d like to join SAFM (and possibly donate more than Kumar) you can do so here.
