September 9 2012 (INDIATECHONLINE SPECIAL) With both major party conventions concluded, the US presidential elections have entered a phase where one can expect the usual doses of outsourcing bashing. But even the US media is a mite confused this year about what the Obama camp’s views really are.

“I don’t want to be a pioneer of outsourcing. I want to insource” President Obama said in his acceptance speech at Democratic National Convention, three days ago.
But his administration made soothing noises: "It is important to recognize that insourcing, outsourcing, supply chain complexity, supply chain disaggregation, is here to stay” said Laura Tyson, former Clinton administration chair of the Council of Economic Advisors, speaking to Press Trust of India at the Convention.
Meanwhile Ted Strickland, Former Ohio Governor, in his speech suggested that Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney was an incarnation of outsourcing evil: “To Romney, all profits are created equal, whether made on our shores or off… ( he has) so little economic patriotism that even his money needs a passport…Barack Obama is an economic patriot. Mitt Romney is an outsourcing pioneer”. (2012 quoted in the Washington Post). In fact his own actions as governor showed a strange ambivalence, as a piece in ComputerWorld pointed out: See this record:
2007: Tata Consultancy Services builds a delivery center in Milford, Ohio, with the state offered about $19 million in tax credits and other incentives to Tata.
2010: Ohio Governor Ted Strickland’s executive order barring the use of public funds on offshore services says: “The use of offshore service providers could pose unacceptable data security, and thus privacy and identity theft risks. There are pervasive service delivery problems with offshore providers…”
In war as in presidential campaigns, it seems, truth is an early casuality.
We’re betting that come 2013, and the induction of the next US President, the outsourcing bogey  will seem like a minor hiccup and it will be business as usual -- inshore and offshore, insourced and outsourced.. with an easing back of the restrictions on professional visas that will end up hurting the US more than the geographies like India that serve them at a compelling cost-and-quality combo that will be difficult to turn down.
Links to sources cited:
Jobs to be cardinal issue in US elections: How will India get affected? Economic Times, September 9 2012 http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics/nation/jobs-to-be-cardinal-issue-in-us-elections-how-will-india-get-affected/articleshow/16316053.cms  
Ted Strickland slams Mitt Romney for outsourcing. But Obama hasn’t fought outsourcing, either. Washington Post:  http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/ezra-klein/wp/2012/09/04/ted-strickland-slams-mitt-romney-for-outsourcing-but-obama-hasnt-fought-outsourcing-either/  
Offshore outsourcing, visas and the Obama speech. Computer World:  September 06, 2012  http://blogs.computerworld.com/gov039t-legislationregulation/20951/offshore-outsourcing-visas-and-obama-speech
IT offshoring: Romney vs. Obama: A look at what will each candidate could do about IT offshore outsourcing.  Computer Word http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9228791/IT_offshoring_Romney_vs._Obama?taxonomyId=72&pageNumber=1