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January 31st, 2008
80-20 Initiative and Obama Campaign Reach Agreement
Posted by Asian Americans for ObamaGreat news! For those of you following the controversy, several weeks ago the Asian American political organization, the 80-20 Initiative, began attacking Sen. Obama for refusing to answer a questionnaire committing to fighting discrimination against Asian Americans in the work place and appointing more AAPI federal judges. The Obama campaign responded that it had objected to the wording in the questionnaire which implied a de facto quota for judges and sought to revise the wording of the questionnaire but was rebuffed. After several weeks of back and forth charges and a lot of time spent by this organization and many others to defend Sen. Obama’s strong record of support for Asian American issues, the two parties have thankfully worked out their differences and come to an agreement on wording for the questionnaire. 80-20 has also agreed to stay neutral in the race except in California where they previously endorsed Sen. Clinton and remove all negative materials on Sen. Obama from their website.
80-20 posted an announcement on their website today.
See Sen. Obama’s signed questionnaire form here.
This is a terrific development, not just because of our support for Sen. Obama, but because those who have been fighting for equal opportunity all their lives cannot afford to spend their time fighting each other. Sen. Obama and the 80-20 Initiative are on the same side when it comes to needed reform, so it was tragic that a disagreement between friends became such an issue. This is a terrific development for our community and for the country.
January 31st, 2008 at 6:40 pm
That’s great news–except for the “except for California” part of 80-20’s announcement. California is where 80-20 has done much of its damage, and it should really make an effort to repair the rift that it caused.
January 31st, 2008 at 9:28 pm
Reappropriate and AAA-Fund respond to 80-20 attack on Obama
Jenn at Reappropriate and Gautam Dutta at AAA-Fund have some effective rejoinders to the latest 80-20 attack on Barack Obama. UPDATE: 80-20 and the Obama campaign bury the hatchet. Finally….
February 1st, 2008 at 7:33 am
Well, this is great news except for the amendment and the late coming of the commitment. Why did it take so long? Also, he mentioned the different racial groups several times during his debate yesterday, but only mentioned Asian Americans once! Does he not regard us as an integral part of the American society? This might have been subconscious, but it does say a lot!