Democratic presidential front runner Barack Obama and his rival Hillary Clinton both have people of Indian origin on their staff and influential inner circle of political and policy advisers.
NEW YORK: Democratic presidential front runner Barack Obama and his rival Hillary Clinton both have people of Indian origin on their staff and influential inner circle of political and policy advisers.
A rundown of Obama’s top advisors — a total of 22 men and women includes legal superstar Preeta Bansal, a 42-year-old partner at New York law firm Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom. Bansal went to Harvard Law School with Obama where she was supervising editor of the Harvard Law Review.
The former Solicitor General of New York State was a special counsel in the Bill Clinton White House.
But Bansal is now a key player in Team Obama; responsible for a wide range of policy areas. She advises Obama on international human rights, legal issues, foreign policy and women’s issues. It stands to reason that she helps him reach out to the significant Asian-American community.
“(Senator Obama) is able to advance progressive principles, but he’s not one of these starry-eyed liberals,” she told the National Journal. “With him, two plus two equals five, not four. The whole is greater than the sum of the parts.”
Bansal shares Obama’s emphasis on expanding legal immigration, especially jobs-based immigration. The New York Times in a profile called Bansal a “nimble, unorthodox thinker,” and the New York Law Journal referred to her as “one of the most gifted lawyers of her generation, who combines a brilliant analytical mind with solid, mature judgment.”
Bansal recently sparred with none other than Team Hillary hard hitter Neera Tanden at a South Asian Journalist Association (SAJA) event. When Bansal spoke glowingly about how Obama wanted to draw upon the expertise of the Indian American community, Tanden who is Hillary’s chief policy adviser for the campaign went for the kill, reminding her; “The Senator Obama campaign has criticised Hillary for her very commitment to Indian American issues. It has even attacked her for being co-chair of the India caucus. But her actions over the years speak louder than words.”
How smart is the policy wonk in Hillary’s presidential bid? The New York Times says that from all appearances — including a law degree from Yale — very. Tanden’s parents immigrated to the US from India after an arranged marriage but divorced when she was five.
Tanden’s abandoned mother raised two small children and struggled on welfare. ‘’The reason I’m so active in politics — literally the reason I’ve devoted so much time to politics and public service — is because of my background,’’ Tanden told the NYT.
While Hillary relies on Tanden for developing policies, her right hand person during her campaign travels is 32-year-old Huma Abedin, a daughter of an Indian father and Pakistani mother. Mike Feldman, who worked for Al Gore told Vogue; “Campaigns are unwieldy, hard-to-control things Decisions have to be made on the fly; you need somebody you can trust at that moment — Watch them together, and there’s this non-verbal communication between them.
Sometimes it’s as little as a glance, but the senator knows she can hand off a head of state, a senator, or an important donor to Huma and that the conversation is going to end well.”
Journalists tagging Hillary on her breathless campaign have sung paeans to drop-dead gorgeous Abedin’s flawless skin and hair after “three hours of sleep and four cups of coffee.”
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