Image by springhill2008 via FlickrReshma Saujani is a remarkable, remarkable candidate. District 14 is lucky to have her contest.
New York City is lucky she did not move back to Chicago like that other ma - Obama - after she got done with law school.
She started with a few different national constituencies.
The
Indian Americans are the most successful
ethnic group in
America measured by per capita family income. An average Indian American family makes twice as much as an average white family, for example. Indians tend to have a strong sense of heritage and family values. There seems to be major onus on education, hard work and thrift. Reshma Saujani has been the number one fundraiser in that community for the
Democratic Party for a few election cycles now. She has been minting money for the party like crazy. That is even more remarkable for me to watch personally because fundraising has never been one of my strengths.
When she first launched her campaign, her first 50,000 dollars came from what she calls the "auntie network," these
South Asian women spread across the country who see in her the fulfillment of all that they perhaps were not able to do. They nurtured loving families, but they perhaps did not have maxed out, fulfilling careers, and they want to relive that fulfillment through Reshma's personal success.
And when I talk tech, I am not just referring to dot coms and dot bombs. By tech I also mean clean tech, bio tech and nano tech. I am talking about the jobs, companies and industries of tomorrow. Many techies I have heard talk about Reshma start out by expressing disbelief. But she speaks our language! She understands our subculture! She is on with our issues! Her appeal is bi-coastal. Actually, sad to note, but the big tech honchos on the West Coast are more excited about her than the big tech honchos on the East Coast. That is yet another sign the West Coast is ahead of the East Coast when it comes to tech.
And there are young professionals of all stripes who are taken by her sheer excellence. She is so good at what she does, you don't have to be in politics to admire her moves. Money, message and organization are the three fundamentals in politics. And she is excellent at all three.
But the constituency that is the most latent, that is the most waiting to erupt in association with the Reshma Saujani name is a symbol that I have taken to calling The New Woman.
If
Barack Obama is The New Black Man, Reshma Saujani is The New Woman. The New Woman wants to, is able to, and takes equality for granted. If you think about it, equality is not really that complicated. The woman wants her education. The woman wants her career. The woman wants her health. The woman wants her life.
Equality was always meant to be something unremarkable like the landscape. It is there. You should be able to take for granted. You should not have to put together the beautiful landscape. But it has been the sorry trajectory of history that equality has been a big deal.
The New Black Man gave me culture shocks when he was someone who hardly ever talked about race. He was not being shy, he was not being diffident, what was he doing? Ends up his style is to instead pump billions into inner city schools. Grandstanding was Jesse Jackson.
You necessarily have to go past
Al Sharpton to get to Barack Obama. You necessarily have to get past
Carolyn Maloney to get to Reshma Saujani. That is the nature of the beast.
The biggest thing that is happening on September 14 is that this country is birthing The New Woman. Barack Obama was still around and he was still a wonderful, wonderful dude before the Democratic Convention in 2004. But the world had to wait until that convention.
There are two kinds of people, people who will have known Reshma Saujani in person or name before September 14, and those that will hear her name only after that. Which kind are you? (
The First Time I Heard The Obama Name)
She is a South Asian, fine. And she breathes tech, sure she does. But the big deal about Reshma Saujani is that she is The New Woman.
Image by Getty Images via @daylifeThere are many people including several members of the New York congressional delegation (standing ovations to old man Charlie, come on) who seem to suggest Charlie is a good guy because other members of Congress have also been involved in the kind of behavior that Charlie has been involved in.
reform, which has been necessary, and refusing to demonize 
. The 
reform bill they have passed is weak, and their demonization of Wall Street has gone too far and has hurt the chances of this country bouncing back to low unemployment levels. 
congressional delegation needs to do a fundamental rethink. It needs to distance itself from Rangel/Maloney, and it needs to come out in support of Reshma Saujani. 
congressional delegation go stand in the corner.
politician could make right about now. To stand by Maloney is to wish a permanent 10% 
