David Krikorian is a Democrat who is running the for the Democratic party's nomination against Rep. Jean Schmidt (R-OH) in Ohio's 2nd congressional district. Mr. Krikorian's primary challenger in the primary is an Indian-American businessman named Surya Yalamanchili, who appeared on the tv show The Apprentice. In a speech before a veterans group, Krikorian asked, “Now do you really think that a guy with a name like that has a chance of ever being elected?†Krikorian allegedly said to members of Veterans of Foreign Wars in Clermont County." Its worth noting that the Ohio Democratic party and the Hamilton County Democratic party, as well as Schmidt, have all rebuked Krikorian. What a loser.
Terminating an undeveloped fetus's when you are ill prepared to care and fully nurture a child, should be an individuals right. People do it in an act of love for the child, man.
I don't know, man... It probably was a racist statement, but then again everything that's simply inappropriate to say is a racist statement. Regardless though... the comment was tasteless, but racist? :shrugs:
I don't think it was such a bad thing to say. As PhilGates said, tasteless sure, but hardly racist in the same way as saying "You can't be here, this place is for white people only" or throwing racist slurs around. As 'racist' as it may be, there's a hell of an element of truth there too... race aside, ANYONE with a long and 'foreign' name is going to have a hard time gaining the edge over someone with a culturally familiar, easy to remember name like John Smith or George Bush As someone involved in politics though, he should of known that you can't say anything without it being taken down, recorded and offending AT LEAST one person in the world...
But why did he bring it up? What does his name have to do with anything? He, on purpose or not, injected racial politics for no reason. Last i remember, someone who had a "different" name is now president.
Ohio's democratic party has made an art out of shooting itself in the foot over the last year or two. I definetly think this probably is a case of injecting race into the debate, but I think this is also a case of severe stupidity as opposed to racial prejudice. I think the difference is pretty important, but unfortunatly society rarely does.
It could've been racially motivated, but he could've also been trying to point out that it is hard to get elected into politics when you are not a John/Jane Doe, run of the mill citizen... (Because someone with an unusual name who is not white is less likely to be generally accepted in the political arena. Although, our current president is probably a very obvious exception to this rule) But I'm really just playing devil's advocate here and I don't honestly think he meant to produce that kind of statement....