Sukhdev Singh Bainiwal, a 42-year-old software engineer from the Evergreen area of San Jose, knows what it's like to feel less American than others. After the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, he was accosted by strangers and told to "go home" because, as a Sikh, he wears a turban.

But Bainiwal senses that America has become a more tolerant place since those scary days. And he was thrilled when his 17-year-old son, an Obama supporter, went to work as a poll worker, wearing his turban.

With Obama's election, Bainiwal said, "more barriers will continue to fall. People will vote for people based on the skills and knowledge that they have and what they stand for — and not because of the way they look." [Link]

A photograph circulating on the Internet of Democratic Sen. Barack Obama dressed in traditional local garments during a visit to Kenya in 2006 is causing a dustup in the presidential campaign over what constitutes a smear.
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The Associated Press photograph portrays Obama wearing a white turban and a wraparound white robe presented to him by elders in Wajir, in northeastern Kenya. Obama's estranged late father was Kenyan and Obama visited the country in 2006, attracting thousands of well-wishers.

The gossip and news Web site The Drudge Report posted the photograph Monday and said it was being circulated by "Clinton staffers" and quoted an e-mail from an unidentified campaign aide. Drudge did not include proof of the e-mail in the report.

"I just want to make it very clear that we were not aware of it, the campaign didn't sanction it and don't know anything about it," Clinton spokesman Howard Wolfson said in a teleconference with reporters. "None of us have seen the e-mail in question. If anybody has independent reporting that they've done on it I would welcome it."

Obama, in an interview with WOAI radio in San Antonio, Texas, said voters are "saddened when they see these kind of politics." [Link]