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| Also listed in: Campus Progress Blog |
It begins:
In response to Sen. Obama's steadfast refusal to address the grievance faced by Asian Ams, and given that the presidential primary season will begin in 7 days, the Board of 80-20 has voted unanimously to defeat Sen. Obama's candidacy in the Democratic primary unless he replies to OUR questionnaire with all yeses.
and continues:
Sen. Obama gave almost farcical reasons why he would not reply to OUR questionnaire. The reasons given are
1) "He is black." Hence he has to be extra careful in matters dealing with the minorities to avoid the suspicion of the majority. So is Sen. Obama hoping to build his presidency on the backs of Asian Ams suffering unequal opportunity in workplaces?! How arrogant!
First of all, the Obama campaign almost certainly did not reply with: "He is black." Simply making such a ludicrous claim is pretty strange. The official Obama statement on the questionnaire is here.
After listing a few other outrageous things the Obama campaign never said, Woo disintegrates into anti-Obama drivel (Note, I did not bold or change the font color in any of these quotations- it is purely the prose of Mr. S.B. Woo):
Sen. Obama trivializes his "inexperience" by pointing to our youngest President, John F. Kennedy. How wrong Obama is. Kennedy served in the House and Senate for 14 years, from1946 to 1960, before being elected the President. Obama has only 3 years' experience in national politics -- one quarter the national experience of our youngest President -- JFK.
Unfortunately, judging from the 80-20 website, Woo has a history of eccentricity and outlandish statements. This chart claims that through 80-20's endorsement and without any evidence that Asian American voter turnout increased for Gore and Kerry in 2000 and 2004 respectively. In an e-mail to fellow group members after Hillary Clinton agreed to 80-20's demands, Woo remarked: "Asian style politics abandoned: Don't raise money for politicians like ignorant slobs" and that 80-20 would now raise funds for Clinton. Under the achievements section of the site, Woo gives an example of his activism:
Conflict:"... get the TV ad off the air immediately or face 80-20's wrath." -- message left by S. B. Woo for Jim Nicholson, Chair, Republican National Committee.
Other parts of the website claim credit for single handily defeating Abercrombie and Fitch for racist t-shirts (without mentioning the work of students and other activist groups) and the tone of the e-mail is pretty much consistent everywhere:
You are the David who will beat Goliath. The email addresses you'll
send to AsianAmericanUnity@80-20.us will be the slingshot. The
presidential candidates presidential candidates who ignore Asian Ams
concerns are the Goliaths. Our children's destiny brightens when you
join the rank of DAVID. DO IT NOW please.
The 80-20 letter is not the only source of misinformation about Obama spreading via e-mail. Among the myth-promoting e-mails floating around the Internet about Obama, most have made erroneous claims about his faith (that he is a 'secret' Muslim or an atheist) or noted that his middle name is Hussein (which is correct, however Obama has not kept his name a secret, as the e-mail contends). The origin of most these e-mails are almost impossible to trace and they have been spotted on computers all over the country going back several years. Clinton staffers were recently let go in Iowa after being caught forwarding one of these Obama e-mails along.
Has 80-20 and S.B Woo lost it? Woo sings Clinton's praises throughout the blog. Is this latest e-mail campaign (80-20 says it has a list of over 700,000 and I have reports of this e-mail being sent along Maryland area list servs) a lame attempt to hurt Obama and help Clinton? Any misinformation is dangerous near election time, even stuff like the rantings of someone like Woo to his list servs.
There are a number of eccentric 'groups' like this floating around, that are really driven by the force of one dude and his ego. Woo sounds like he fits that mold.
There are a lot of strong APA political groups out there (CAUSE USA, NAPAWF, AAAF, etc.), and they're getting exponentially more organized and interconnected, as well as incorporating links to business and legal interests, and interests beyond the traditional upper-middle-class Chinese-Japanese-Korean-Americ an ones (S.E. Asian American issues, for example). I don't think 80-20 will be part of this emerging nexus. This sort of irrational hyperbole revokes Woo's ticket to the party and ensures that APA elected officials collaborating over who to endorse won't take him seriously.
This letter was also printed in the Asian American Press as an op-ed this week.
Link
January 11, 2008
As you may be aware, the 80-20 Initiative national organization and their current board, under the leadership of Dr. S.B . Woo, have recently launched an unfounded and unjustified public campaign attack on one presidential candidate, Barack Obama, on behalf of "all Asian Americans".
As a self-described organization with a mission to "work for equality and justice for all Asian Americans" in a "nonpartisan" way, their unfounded "swift-boat" style attack on Obama, while ignoring every other candidate who didn't respond to their PAC Questionnaire is short-sighted, foolish and wrong. Their raw political tactics reeks of hypocrisy and a symbol of great shame for me, as a fellow Asian American, and as a political activist who happens to believe in the issues they and all of us are fighting for.
I write in PROTEST and IMPLORE to you to urge 80-20 to STOP making fools out of all of us! Yes, all of us as equal and politically engaged Asian Americans!
I have read their press releases to the local Asian newspapers. I have scoured through their blogs and e-mail exchanges on their website. Yes, and I have researched the very issues on their questionnaire to this year's batch of presidential candidates from both parties. I have also read Obama's response to their questionnaire. I have spoken to and have documented responses from Asian American campaign organizers from several of the Democratic campaigns about 80-20's recent, and should I say, quite bizarre behavior in attacking Obama.
80-20 has the right to attack anyone they wish, especially under their guise of a "non-partisan" group, but please, spare us some facts, will you!? Dennis Kucinich did not respond to their questionnaire. NONE of the Republican candidates responded as well! Where's 80-20's attack on the Republicans, who, afterall, could care less about ANY of their questionnaires, much less them as an organization?!? Where are the cries of protests and random discriminate attacks from 80-20's Asian American Republicans? I mean, we can all appreciate some equal opportunity discrimination here, right? But just Obama?
Clearly, this is where 80-20's hypocrisy (and perhaps their hidden partisanship agenda) is not only revealed, but rotting in the public square for all to see! Trust me, many Asian Americans across this country aren't as stupid or out of touch with the political process and all its nuances as they all would like us to believe. Don't pretend to "represent" any of us, if you're an organization that can't even sense that your current actions as an organization might actually be hurting so many Asian Americans...in ways you're too blind to see or realize at the moment, thus your bizarre, twisted and unfounded attack on Obama.
For all the good that 80-20 seem to do, they will have undo much of it by their blunt and unfounded attacks on Obama. I suppose 80-20 must be confident enough that their actions won't backfire on them in ways that will cause their organization to become totally irrelevant among the vast majority of Asian Americans, and beyond.
What disturbs me the most is that the people whose names are prominently on 80-20's leadership roster knowing and consciously allow, order, and carry out this publicity stunt to try and "swift-boat" Obama. And for what?
I actually spent some time in the last several days to research everyone on the board and the current officers. I am not naive about the people who throw their support, financially and otherwise to this organization. It is with this keen knowledge that 80-20's current actions towards Obama, the energy and resources they have put into "defeating Obama", and their seemingly partisan-charged attempts to "swift-boat" Obama is so utterly weird, and frankly, immature, shallow, and lacking in judgment and all virtues of an upstanding organization for a cause as great as seeking equal opportunity for Asian Americans. Shame on them!
I call upon all concerned Asian Americans to take a step back, think, and if need be, organize a campaign to hold those responsible for this (ironically) discriminatory and totally unfounded, bias, and politically partisan-motivated attack on Obama...to account. This issue needs to be put before all the stakeholders, members and volunteers of 80-20 and see where they each stand. Beyond that, all major national Asian American organizations and leaders, elected and otherwise should be made aware of 80-2's unfounded actions, and let the chips fall where they may. It's a total shame that 80-20 have chosen to ignore ALL the Republican candidates altogether on the issues in their questionnaire.
One only needs to browse the front pages of 80-20's current website to see how blatantly partisan and anti-Obama 80-20 is. Link
If 80-20 insists on their witch hunt of Obama, Asian Americans should unite to conclude that 80-20 have NO credibility as an organization who claims to represent the issues of our vastly diverse Asian American population in this country, especially on issues of equality and opportunity. It's also a real shame that reputable organizations and individuals of integrity who are currently associated with 80-20 should have to share the same limelight of this nasty publicity sideshow.
Finally, if 80-20 is so passionate about the issues in their questionnaire, you would think they would actually take the fight to DEFEAT the real obstacles to Asian American progress of true equality and opportunity in this country...the Republican candidates who could care less about responding or have anything to do with them or their questionnaire!!!
For once, take the fight to whom and where it matters!!! The fact is that Obama is hardly their enemy!
I am not writing this on behalf of any campaign or any candidate for the presidency, but as a concerned Asian American who cares deeply about the political process.
Thank you.
Sincerely,
Mai Kou Xiong
Minneapolis, Minnesota