Democratic
Vice Presidential nominee Joe Biden: An expert
on
the Indian Sub-Continent, his presence on the Democratic
ticket
shows where the focus of a Democratic administration
is
likely to be.
The Times of India, India
Obama-Biden Ticket
Bodes Well for Indian Subcontinent
"Biden is
especially intimate with the Indian sub-continent. With Biden, the region,
especially Pakistan and Afghanistan, will get greater attention, with better
clarity, than at any time in the past.... India won't be neglected either,
given Biden's leading role in pushing through the nuclear deal."
By Chidanand Rajghatta
August 23,
2008
India
- The Times of India - Original Article (English)
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THE WORD GOES FORTH:
The message sent to those who signed up to recieve it, as it went out
annuncing the Senator Joe Biden has ben selected as the Democratic
nominee for Vice President.
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WASHINGTON:
A Democratic White House could have a slight Indian accent after Presidential
candidate Barack Obama on Saturday chose experienced Delaware Senator and foreign
policy maven Joseph Biden as his vice-presidential running mate.
Biden, who is chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations
Committee, helped pilot the U.S.-India nuclear deal through Congress and
initiated the recent eclipse of military rule in Pakistan. He is generally intimate
with Indians and the Indian sub-continent - an association even Obama claims.
The Obama campaign broke the week-long suspense over the
vice-presidential nominee with a 3am
text message to supporters that said, ''Barack has chosen Senator Joe Biden to
be our VP nominee.''
''Joe and I will appear for the first time as running mates
this afternoon in Springfield,
Illinois - the same place this
campaign began more than 19 months ago,'' Obama said in an e-mail sent a little
later. ''I'm excited about hitting the campaign trail with Joe, but the two of
us can't do this alone. We need your help to keep building this movement for
change.''
By then, a breathless media had cottoned on to Biden being
the frontrunner through a process of elimination. A Secret Service detail that
made its way to Biden's place past midnight
gave the game away.
Biden, who is 65 and a six-term Senator, is thought to bring
enormous foreign policy experience and heft to the Obama ticket. He is especially
intimate with the Indian sub-continent. Experts surmise that with Biden, the
region, especially Pakistan/Afghanistan, will get greater attention, with
better clarity, than at any time in the past.
A VIDEO MEDLEY
OF VP NOMINEE JOE BIDEN
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Joe
Biden, Ben Affleck on Bill Maher Show, Apr. 7, 00:10:00: WATCH
Biden
Calls Bush Appeasement Comment on Obama 'Bull Shit', 5/15: WATCH
Joe
Biden Speaks to the National Press Club, Aug. 1, 2007, 00:55:27 : WATCH
India
won't be neglected either, given Biden's leading role in pushing the nuclear
deal, and his close ties with Indian-Americans. In fact, such is Biden's
familiarity with the Indian community that he once made a faux pas of
Macaca-like proportions, but with a happier ending.
During a 2006 campaign appearance while still in contention
for the presidential ticket, Biden, boasting about his strong relationship with
Indian-Americans in his state, said ''You cannot go to a 7-Eleven or a Dunkin'
Donuts unless you have a slight Indian accent.''
The remark was misconstrued as being politically incorrect,
but Biden quickly put it in perspective saying it was meant to demonstrate his
''incredibly strong'' relationship with Indian-Americans.
''I was making the point that up until now in my state,
we've had a strong Indian community made up of leading scientists and
researchers and engineers,'' Biden explained later. ''We're having middle-class
people move to Delaware,
take over Dunkin' Donuts, take over businesses, just like other immigrant
groups have, and I was saying that ... they're growing, it's moving.''
''I could have said that 40 years ago about walking into a
delicatessen and hearing an Italian accent in my state,'' he added.
Most Indian-Americans in Delaware, where indeed there has been a boom
in small business growth within the community, didn't take offense to Biden's
remark. Many of them, especially those involved in businesses relating to
motels, liquor stores, and gas stations, are Biden supporters and contributors
who have held fundraisers for him and reeled him into events like the local
Navratri garba hosted by the Gujarati community.
Posted by WORLDMEETS.US
''He's a great guy, very experienced. We love him,'' Pravin
Patel, president of the Delaware Asian-American Business Association, said on
Saturday after news broke of Biden's selection. ''He will be good for
U.S.-India relations.'' Patel said he and his associates celebrated the e-mail
announcement at 3 a.m.
(With similar off-the-cuff remarks, a Republican Senator,
George Allen, wasn't as lucky as Biden). Although he too has close ties to the
Indian community in Virginia,
Allen lost his Senate seat in 2006 after calling an Indian-American Democrat
activist a ''Macaca'' - shorthand for ape)
In
the area of accents, Obama, too, has been the subject of much positive scrutiny
in the ''desi'' community for being able to pronounce ''Pakistan''
correctly. Recently, Obama himself joked about being a ''desi'' and his ability
to make ''daal.'' The Presidential candidate's sub-continental connection goes
back to the 1980s when he had college-mates from the region and during the Zia
years, he went on a three-week visit to Pakistan.
Biden also has another key South Asia
connection. One of his foreign policy staffers is Jonah Blank. Blank is a Yale
and Harvard alumnus, whose books include Arrow
of the Blue-Skinned God: Retracing the Ramayana through India , and Mullahs on the Mainframe , which is a
study of India's
Dawoodi Bohra Muslim community.
Posted by WORLDMEETS.US
Pakistan,
too, is certain to get extra attention under a Obama-Biden dispensation. Blank
and others, under Biden's scrutiny, have put together legislation that will result
in an aid package of $1.5 billion per years for 10 years to Pakistan, directed
mostly at the social sector at the expense of the largely military relationship
pursued by the Bush Administration.
While agreeing that such aid is fungible and could enable
Pakistan to divert its domestic resources to military purposes, Biden aides say
such a large package will at least give Washington some leverage over Pakistan,
which both Obama and Biden believe to be the most dangerous country in the
world - and one that needs to be brought back to the democratic mainstream.
In fact, Obama's choice of Biden locks in with their mutual
view that the Pakistan-Afghanistan region, and not Iraq, is the central front in the
war on terror.
[Posted by WORLDMEETS.US August 23, 3:40pm]