Indian American Student hired by Presidential Hopeful

S.R. Sidarth, the University of Virginia student who exposed George Allen's use of the word "macaca" and doomed his presidential campaign, is now a paid staffer for Bill Richardson in Sante Fe, NM.

In 2006 Sidarth was working for Sen. Jim Webb's campaign by video tapping Allen's stump speeches, when Allen singled him out twice by calling him a "macaca" and saying the infamous phrase "Welcome to America kid". Ironically, Allen is not originally from Virgina, while Sidarth was born there.

Allen is currently working for Fred Thompson's presidential campaign.

GOP Candidates Trade Barbs during CNN/You Tube Debate

The Republican Presidential candidates squared off tonight in Florida debating typical conservative issues such as illegal immigration, taxes, gun control, and gays in the military. However, with the unique You Tube format, candidates were grilled by ordinary Americans. One of the things that struck me was when a guy from Dallas, held up a copy of the Bible and asked, “All of you should be judge on one question only, do you believe every WORD in this book?” Giuliani answered first saying that many of the stories act as metaphors, however, Romney answered that he believes the Bible is the word of God, implying that he believes in the literal sense of the book.

Another question that stuck out was when a user asked what the Confederate Flag means to the candidates. Surprisingly, an issue I thought that could be pivotal for voters in the South was very answered decisively. Romney immediately argued that a symbol that divides the country so much should not be tolerated, even attacking John Edwards in the process. “Every time I hear Edwards talk about two Americas, I want to throw something at the TV. We are one country and should be united.” Knowing that South Carolina is a key primary state for him, it was sort of reassuring that a man who changes his mind quite a bit came out so strong. Former Tennessee Senator Fred Thompson also spoke out against the flag, in a mush softer manner, saying that it should not be flown individually in public places.

The candidates were asked to create a 30 sec You Tube ad for their campaigns, but Thompson’s clearly stood out being the first and only attack ad. Many insiders afterwards sense this was a sign of desperation for his campaign.

Another interesting thing about the debate was that the name Bush was only mentioned twice. Virtually all the candidates, aside from Ron Paul, agree with Bush on the vast majority of things such as Iraq, taxes, gun control, religion in public life. It’s funny that though he still has over a year in the White House the candidates pretend he doesn’t exist (no credit to him). Given Bush’s popular rating, I think not differentiating themselves can come back to haunt the Republican candidates in the general election.

Finally, the winners of the debate were declared by CNN’s panel. Conservative commentators said that Romney came out the strongest, but all analysts voted Mike Huckabee (and I agree) the winner. Huckabee came out ready to answer challenging questions with thought provoking explanations, all in a funny/witty manner. In terms of losers, internet darling Ron Paul was extraordinarily weak today and there was a sigh of disappointed when he said he would not run as an independent (perhaps a sigh of relief as well.)

Stay tune for some video postings of the debate that we’ll post on the blog.


Anay Shah

Fred Thompson Hires Mr. Macaca

I just saw this interesting blog post that our Macaca friend, George Allen, is back into the political world as Fred Thompsons National Campaign Co-Chair. Mr. Thompson have you not been keeping up with the world again? Recently Fred was quoted as saying

"I’m afraid that the Soviet Union & China are not ever going to do anything that’s going to hurt them that badly but we need to ratchet those up if at all possible." Link to transcript

Mr. Thompson also couldn't recall details about the Teri Schaivo case which really was on every tv channel, even cutting into reruns of Law & Order! This is a great way to start off a candidacy by picking Mr. Macaca himself as your national campaign co-chair. George Allen LOST his senate seat going from a presidential hopeful to a political zero due to the comments he had said to a Young Indian American, working for his opponents campaign. (watch a video of the event below!)

The community has not forgotten Mr. Thompson and if you keep this up you too will be around just like the Soviet Union.




Jay Shah

3rd Quarter Fundraising Amounts – Dems Win, Again

The 3^rd quarter fundraising results are out with a huge disparity again favoring the Democrats. The WSJ reports that for the year, the top Democrats have raised $239.7 million to the $160.5 million raised by the top Republicans.

On the Democratic side, the race is on between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. Obama surprised many by raising $20 million in a typically slow quarter. The next day, Clinton topped that by raising $27 million.

Republicans Mitt Romney and Rudy Giuliani sharpened their rivalry with both reporting similar fundraising amounts of $10.5 million and $11 million. Newcomer Fred Thompson came in third with $9.3 million. Ron Paul shocked many by raising $5 million in the last 3 months. This was $4 million more than rival Mike Huckabee and a million less than John McCain, who has recently had a comeback in the polls.

Why is there such a disparity between the two parties? Well looking at recent polls, Hillary continues to dominate her party’s nomination race, but the Republican race is still in the air with some candidates the winning in the national polls, others winning in the primary states, and key groups like evangelicals unsure of who to support.

SOMEONE HIRE THE REPUBLICANS A DEMOGRAPHIC STATISTICIAN: By Sanjay Puri

The leading Republican Presidential Candidates: Giuliani, Thompson, Romney and McCain were a no show at last Thursday night’s Republican debate at Morgan State University. It is shocking to see the lack of foresight about the changing electorate demographics in the Country by the Republican leadership. Being a party of Southern white voters is not going to win them too many Presidential elections in the future.

If the Republicans hired demographic statisticians they would have told them that currently African Americans and Hispanics comprise about 80 plus million out of 300 million Americans, add another 10 million Asians and they are basically over 30 percent of the population. Also future trends show that one out of two new born in this country is a Hispanic. So these statisticians would tell them that it is a demographic suicide to alienate these fast growing minority groups.

Being a no show at key minority events is a slap on the face of these communities since these events are symbolic to them of their growing maturity in the political process. The Presidential candidates are taking the approach that they are not going to get too many African American votes in the case of the Morgan State University so why bother. Well it could be a self fulfilling prophecy for the Republicans since their share of the African American vote could be lower than usual in 2008.

Their strident tone in the immigration debate in the Senate and the continued anti immigration positions by these Presidential candidates in the primaries will cost them dearly with the Hispanic vote and also campaign support from the affluent Asian community. They don’t get it that just like anti-immigration groups don’t like immigration and don’t make the distinction between legal and illegal immigration, pro immigration groups consider Presidential candidates who are against illegal immigration as being against immigration. The Republican leadership needs to be reminded of Pete Wilson in California and Proposition 187. Several key states besides the two coasts are impacted by the immigrant vote in places like South West and Mountain West USA.

The leadership of the Republican Party which is not running for the Presidential race or aligned with any of these candidates should step up and clearly speak about this issue and establish ground rules for the future. Mandating some presence and participation at key minority political events even if they are not in the friendliest atmosphere is a must if they want to be a party that can produce a presidential candidate that is going to look for support from the entire nation. Right now they way the political map is configured, between the African American, Hispanic and Asian communities the Republicans are getting positioned to write off over 30% of Americans and look to win a majority of 51% of support from 70% of the votes. Do the math, getting 51% from 100% is hard enough, 51% from 70% is impossible. They might wring out a bare victory in 2008 but the future looks very bleak.

The irony is that if you put aside the issue of Iraq which finds deep anguish in most Americans, there are minorities who are fiscally conservative and emphasize family values. But the Republicans have not really reached out to them and they feel that the reaching out has been mainly for campaign funds and not a systematic approach of nurturing them. Having Sen. Martinez and Lt. Gov. Steele in key positions at the Republican Party helps but Sen. Martinez could not get his own party lined up on the immigration debate.

The Republicans are at a key defining moment,, it is time for their sharpest minds like Ken Mehlman, Karl Rove, Ed Gillespie, Haley Barbour and others to decide whether they want to be a party of the present or of the future since they are about to be wiped out by a demographic explosion which even a amateur demographer can advise them on!
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Sanjay Puri
Chairman USINPAC

Top 4 GOP Candidates Criticized for not Attending Minority Debate

Last night historically black Morgan State University held a debate for the Republican candidates to speak on issues affecting minorities. Absent from the PBS aired debate were the top 4 leading GOP candidates: Rudy Giuliani, Fred Thompson, John McCain and Mitt Romney. All used the typical “scheduling conflict” excuse to skip the event. The event coordinators left the 4 empty podiums up (see picture above) for these candidates, which I think sent a powerful message.

Fortunately, the six other candidates, as well as past election candidate Alan Keyes attended. This gave a more exclusive opportunity to hear the “lower tier” candidates’ views on issues like illegal immigration, the war in Iraq, minority unemployment rates and their position on capital punishment.

All the participants expressed their embarrassment for the party and the candidates that did not show. Even soon to be decided presidential hopeful Newt Gingrich remarked that it was a mistake for them not to attend.

Why do you think the top tier GOP candidates did not attend? Was it intentional or do you really think all of them had better things to do than participate on a national forum? If so, maybe they should get their priorities straight.

Read the full article here.

Anay Shah

Blog Editor