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Clinton Snubs Indian Tech Group
by Josh Gerstein
Thu, 5 Jul 2007 at 4:52 PM
updated Thu, 5 Jul 2007 at 4:53 PM
Senator Clinton is going to telecommute to a major gathering of Indian-American engineers tomorrow, instead of showing up in person as advertised.
Mrs. Clinton was billed as a keynote speaker for the meeting of 4000 alumni of the Indian Institutes of Technology, which is set to take place in Santa Clara, Calif. Friday through Sunday.
"Her travel schedule changed so she won't actually be in California. She will still be speaking to the conference via satellite," a spokesman for the IIT confab, Sean Mills, said a short time ago. "This all happened yesterday."
A spokesman for Mrs. Clinton, Philippe Reines, confirmed the last-minute change of plans. "Her schedule these days is both very busy and very fluid," he said. "When it became clear that a trip to California tomorrow was logistically not possible, the alternative of appearing and speaking via live video link was suggested, so that the attendees can hear her deliver the same keynote address, and then answer their questions."
Mr. Reines did not respond to a query about the specific scheduling conflict. Back in May, Mrs. Clinton was announced as a speaker for the California meeting. The group has been selling conference registrations at $250 a pop. The former first lady just announced plans to be in New Orleans tomorrow afternoon to attend the Essence Music Festival and a companion discussion event.
Mrs. Clinton's planned appearance at the IIT gathering was the lead of a story in The New York Sun last month highlighting the senator's popularity and prodigious fund-raising among Indian Americans.
While the IIT folks are putting on a brave face, saying they are "pleased that the Senator will still be speaking," this seems like something of a dis to the Indian group.
I'm poking around to see what happened here, but here are some thoughts.First, The New Orleans event is an opportunity to reach out to African-Americans, both grassroots types and leaders. Given the challenge from Senator Obama, that is simply a bigger priority right now than speaking to Indian Americans. [Update: On further checking, Mr. Obama was to speak to the Essence festival Thursday night. That probably tells you all you need to know about why the former first lady felt the need to go.]
Second, Mrs. Clinton is already doing so well with Indian Americans it probably won't hurt too much to lose a bit of face by not showing up at this session in person. Part of why she's doing so well is because of the xenophobic research paper about Indian-American support for Mrs. Clinton that Mr. Obama's campaign sent out a couple of weeks ago. He apologized, but the episode probably caused some Indian Americans to give up on him.Third, this may be an indication of how the Democratic presidential campaign is transitioning from jockeying for money to jockeying for votes. While Indian Americans have been very generous donors to Mrs. Clinton, there are a lot more blacks than South Asians in the American populace.Fourth, the New Orleans discussion does look right up Mrs. Clinton's alley. It seems to be about improving depictions of women in hip hop music. It should be a good platform for her to embrace the popular art form while throwing a few zingers at the misogynists in the business. Call it a Mistah Souljah moment.
Related Topics: Dem Primary
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