Editorial : Time to Focus

Editorial / Periscope - Niall O'Dowd

Editorial : Time to Focus

March 19, 2008

By Niall O’Dowd

THE continuing focus on the extent of Senator Hillary Clinton’s contribution to the Irish peace process has overshadowed the reality that Senator Barack Obama, to put it charitably, has barely touched the subject and has seemed utterly disinterested during his term in the Senate.

There is word that both Clinton and Senator John McCain are now likely to take part in the Irish American Presidential Forum organized by former New York Assemblyman John Dearie, but that no word has yet been received from the Obama camp.

It seems a curious oversight given that Obama’s handlers have been trying to make it abundantly clear that Clinton has been over-egging the pudding on her Irish experience, and that he is fully committed to an Irish policy also.

The gap between her acceptance of the forum invitation and the hesitancy from the Obama camp suggests otherwise, however. It mirrors other Irish developments during this campaign.

From the beginning Clinton has had a very wide range of Irish American support. Almost $2 million has been raised for her by Irish supporters, most recently when the group Celtic Woman held a fundraising concert attended by President Bill Clinton last week in New York.

Included in the Irish American support group for Clinton are major leaders in the community, some of whom have worked decades with the Clintons on Irish issues.

On the other hand, a group supporting Obama was put in place just two weeks ago features only one well-known name, that of former San Jose Mayor Tom McEnery. Most of the group’s stated platform had nothing to do with Irish issues, but was just a statement of broad support for Obama’s policies.

In addition to Northern Ireland, the other major issue in the Irish American community is the plight of the Irish undocumented. In this regard Clinton way outscores Obama also.

The Irish Lobby for Immigration Reform (ILIR) held three Washington rallies bringing over 3,000 people to Capitol Hill on each occasion throughout 2006 and 2007 in support of comprehensive immigration reform.

Clinton appeared at two of those rallies and gave her wholehearted support to ILIR in its efforts to win immigration reform.

Obama was invited on all three occasions to address the rallies (McCain also attended two) but declined to appear. We can read what we wish into that, but it seems fair to say it never occurred to him or his backers at that point that speaking out on behalf of the undocumented was an important idea.

Indeed, Obama’s former foreign policy advisor Samantha Power, an Irish native, recently stated that he would not be as specific about Northern Ireland but would rather have a more global focused foreign policy.

Those remarks did not go down well, as just afterwards the Obama campaign released a statement on the Armenian genocide making it clear they were pitching for Armenian American votes.

Yes, Obama made a good statement on Northern Ireland last St. Patrick’s Day, but there has been little or no follow up from his campaign.

During his time in office he has hardly gone out of his way to show interest in Ireland. He has never visited and rarely taken the opportunity to show interest in the area.

Yet we have his campaign pounding at Clinton for her involvement, which by any measure is streets ahead of anything Obama has done during their comparable time in the Senate.

It seems there is something amiss here. The media ought to be asking Obama about his record on Ireland during his time in the Senate and comparing it to Clinton’s during the same period. That way a fair assessment can be reached. It is obvious who will come out the better.

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