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Posted: June 21, 2007 4:22 PM
Obama Apologizes for Memo Criticizing Clinton's Ties to India
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Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., started the week with an apology to Indian-Americans for a memo circulated by his campaign that criticized his Democratic rival New York Sen. Hillary Clinton’s financial ties to India. The headline of the memo , posted by the New York Times, was “Hillary Clinton (D-Punjab)’s Personal Financial and Political Ties to India.”

Obama told the Associated Press on Monday, “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 added the memo was “unnecessarily caustic.” In a statement on his Web site, Obama said he was not aware of the contents of the memo before it was distributed. The campaign said it had taken action to ensure that senior staff reviews material before it is distributed to the public to prevent future errors.

Media commentary pointed out that Obama has blamed his staff for snafus in the past. The Chicago Sun-Times reported “In May, Obama told leaders of the International Association of Fire Fighters he skipped their New Hampshire meeting because of his scheduling staff.” The AP added, “Earlier this year, Obama faulted his staff for comments in a dispute with the Clinton camp over Hollywood donor David Geffen.”

Washingtonpost.com’s Chris Cillizza pointed out that what has been most damaging to the Obama campaign is that the senator “had promised from the start to run a different sort of campaign, one based more on his telling voters about his own positive vision for the country rather than peddling negative details about his opponents.”

In more positive news for the campaign, Obama won the Politico.com straw poll of attendees at the Take Back America Conference recently held in Washington, D.C. Obama received 29 percent of the 720 votes cast in the straw poll, narrowly beating former North Carolina Democratic Sen. John Edwards’ 26 percent. Another recent poll of 329 Democrats in South Carolina by independent pollster Mason-Dixon over June 13-15 had Obama ahead with 34 percent, followed by Clinton at 25 percent and Edwards at 12 percent.

On Friday, Obama planned to be in Manchester, N.H. to deliver a speech about how he would change Washington. Later that night he intended to hold a “Generation Barack Obama” event in New York City. Saturday, he expects to give a speech at the UCC Church in Hartford and then round out the weekend with a campaign kickoff in San Antonio, Texas. Obama plans to hold another “kickoff” event, this one in Minneapolis, on June 29.