On a clear-skied Sunday in New York City’s Flushing Meadows-Corona Park, a dozen Asian American teenagers scarf down hot dogs, fly kites and do their bit for the U.S. presidential race. Over the din of a crowd cheering rowers at the annual Hong Kong Dragon Boat Festival, the students, part of city council member John Liu’s Youth Action Team, call out to passersby in Mandarin, Cantonese and English, “Have you registered to vote?”
For Asian Americans across the nation, it’s an important question. Their numbers might be small compared to other ethnic groups—only 5 percent of the total population—but they’ve been growing nine to 10 times faster than the general population, according to the U.S. Bureau of the Census. That could swing the ballot in key states, according to “Awakening the Sleeping Giants?,” a recent report by researchers at UCLA.
The broader significance of Asian American voters was evident in 2006, when U.S. Senate candidate Jim Webb garnered 76 percent of Virginia’s Asian American and Pacific Islander votes, a factor in helping him to secure a narrow victory (less than 0.5 percent) over Republican incumbent George Allen and tipping control of the Senate to Democrats.
Asian Americans also played a significant role in helping Hillary Clinton win the California Democratic primary earlier this year. Comprising an estimated 12 percent of the state’s electorate, an overwhelming majority of Asian Americans—some 71 percent, according to a CNN exit poll—voted for Clinton. Other politically powerful states with large Asian American populations include New York and Texas, and, in a tight race, Asian American voters could swing Florida, says the UCLA report.
Although both Webb and Clinton are Democrats, Asian Americans don’t possess deep party loyalties, because as immigrants they don’t inherit familial ties to one political persuasion, says Paul Ong, a co-author of the UCLA report and a professor at the university. Beyond being “Asian,” voting preferences also depend upon a citizen’s age and country of origin. Vietnamese Americans who escaped from the Communists, for example, have served as a reliable Republican bloc, but their children tend to vote along more fluid lines.
Nationwide, aside from Obama’s childhood turf of Hawaii, Asian Americans nearly unequivocally supported Clinton’s bid; her loss of the nomination left Asian American voters divided over which candidate to support in November.
Clinton likely resonated with Asian American voters in part because she worked within cultural norms, giving “face,” or respect, to their communities and working through what Chinese refer to as “guanxi,” or connections. “We felt loyal to Hillary and guilty when she lost,” says John Liu, New York’s first Asian American city councilman.
Chris Wang, director of the Queens Nan-shan Senior Center, which operates under the auspices of the Chinese-American Planning Council, says the center’s 4,000 naturalized citizen members don’t vote based on a candidate’s platform as much as on whether “that candidate has spoken directly to them and recognized their validity as citizens.”
And as with many Americans, citizenship does not automatically ensure active political engagement. Both naturalized and U.S.-born Asian Americans have lower rates of voter registration than do non-Asians. Language barriers and a lack of understanding about the parties prevent competent participation. “’Democrat’ sounds like ‘democracy,’ which is great—it’s what people signed up for when they came here—but the word for ‘Republican’ in Chinese sounds a little too close to the word for ‘Communist party,’” says Peter Koo, a naturalized American citizen running as a Republican candidate for New York State Senate in 2009.
There are efforts to eliminate these problems: Under the Voting Rights Act, non-English ballots may be provided to voters. In addition, Asian-language media have given extensive political coverage and Asian immigrant support centers throughout the country offer classes on voter registration. But there are more insidious psychological obstacles. Coming from nations where democratic engagement has been actively discouraged or eliminated, where politics has wrecked fortunes and ruined families, many Asian American voters remain reluctant to get involved.
Zhou Ling, a naturalized American citizen from Taiwan who wears an Obama pin with the Chinese characters for “hope,” says Asian American citizens must abandon fear and cultivate courage and civic duty. For her, both were inspired by the Obama campaign, for which she now volunteers. The challenge in rallying Asian Americans for Obama has been that, among certain voter blocs, “there’s uneasiness in the image of a black president, particularly among naturalized citizens who have grown up in monocultures,” says Zhou.
The Obama campaign clearly recognizes the need to reach out to the Asian American community. Last month, California Rep. Mike Honda addressed an Obama fundraiser sponsored by a coalition of Asian American political groups. Obama’s part Indonesian half-sister, Maya Soetoro-Ng, has also contributed as a spokeswoman. Their efforts may bear fruit. According to “New Voters, Old Fears,” by News 21, a journalism initiative of the Carnegie and Knight Foundations, Asian Americans increasingly lean toward Democratic candidates.
McCain, for his part, has long courted Vietnamese Americans, despite once using a racial slur to describe his Northern Vietnamese captors. During the 2000 run for president, he promised Asian American journalists that if he won, he would name an Asian American to his cabinet. Van Thai Tran, Republican member of the California State Assembly and the first American of Vietnamese descent to serve there, has endorsed him; on a more personal note, McCain has an adopted daughter from Bangladesh. McCain’s Web site, however, lists no Asian American coalition.
Ong, the UCLA researcher, says another report due out in October will show that “young Asian Americans have become dramatically more involved in the 2008 presidential campaign. Obama can take a lot of credit for that.” But even the candidate who has made change a central part of his campaign cannot uproot long-standing social values, such as deference to elders and respect for experience. One example: Wen (he declined to provide his first name), an “80-something-year-old” naturalized citizen and resident of New York says he will vote for McCain. “I like a tough guy who can get the job done,” says Wen in Mandarin. As a veteran who fought in the Korean War with Chinese troops in 1952, Wen relates to McCain’s political experience in Vietnam and says, “America has scarier enemies now.”
Perhaps so, but from the looks of the group gathered in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park, America also has a muscular new political vigor.
Time Magazine – Lisa Takeuchi Cullen – February 19, 2008
As Hawaii’s primary takes place on Tuesday, Barack Obama ought to be sitting back with an umbrella cocktail. After all, it’s the state where he spent many of his childhood years. He graduated from the prestigious Punahou School in Honolulu, and his half-sister, Maya Soetoro-Ng, still lives and works there. Along with his wife and daughters, the Illinois Senator returns occasionally for family reunions.
But while there’s a good chance much of Hawaii’s nearly 60% Asian-American population will be squarely behind Obama, the same can’t be said for Asian-Americans in the rest of the country. So far this campaign, that is the one ethnic group that has voted most consistently — and overwhelmingly — for his rival, Hillary Clinton, generating a debate that has raised a very sensitive, ugly question: could some Asian-Americans not be voting for Obama simply because he’s black?
In California, where Asian-Americans make up 8% of the electorate, a CNN exit poll found they voted three to one in her favor. In New York, the Asian American Legal Defense Fund’s exit poll concluded that 87% of Asian-American Democrats backed their state’s Senator. In New Jersey, it was 73%. From no other group did Clinton command that kind of loyalty; she won 69% of Latino voters in California, for example, compared to 75% of Asians. Publications including some local editions of ethnic newspapers like Sing Tao have endorsed her, as have prominent politicians including former Gov. Gary Locke of Washington and Sen. Daniel Inouye of Hawaii.
And while Asian Americans, accounting for just 5% of the population, may not have the numbers to sway the nomination one way or another, their overwhelming support of Clinton has led to a serious debate about what might lie behind it. Experts have speculated about a variety of possible reasons having little to do with race: Like other new immigrants, Asian Americans are more conservative in their choices for leaders, and therefore likely to go with the known entity — which in this race, thanks to her husband and her time in the White House, is Clinton. Many Asians are business owners who prospered under Bill Clinton. Just 34% of Asian Americans between the ages of 18 and 25 vote, according to a slick commercial by MTV’s Choose of Lose Campaign, which may eat into Obama’s poll numbers. Perhaps most significantly, the Clinton campaign had long ago locked up support from local politicians, who hold unusual sway over their ethnic communities.
But the touchy question about race is the one getting the most attention. When CNN’s Anderson Cooper 360 ran a piece by Gary Tuchman earlier this month implying that racism may play a role in Asians’ voting choice, the outcry was instantaneous. The 80-20 Initiative, a political action committee seeking to solidify 80% of Asians in one voting bloc and backing Clinton, organized a petition demanding that CNN run a corrected segment. Asian bloggers, who skew disproportionately toward Obama, shot off paeans of support disputing CNN’s theory. They pointed to prominent Asian-Americans like Norm Mineta — the former Commerce Secretary under Bill Clinton and Transportation Secretary for George W. Bush — who have recently pledged allegiance to the Obama camp.
Still, the fracas has stirred some quiet debate in the community. “Maybe it’s just my cynicism speaking, but you look at those numbers and on some level there has to be some element of race,” says Oliver Wang, a sociology professor at California State University at Long Beach. While not discounting the myriad cultural reasons that could explain the support for Clinton, “on a gut level my reaction is that at least some Asian Americans are uncomfortable voting for a black candidate.”
Wang, 35, who grew up in the U.S., voted for Obama in the California primary. He is a child of Taiwanese immigrants, and believes that foreign-born Asian voters in this election may be leading the Hillary Clinton support. In his view, those voters tend to hold more conservative views; Obama’s mantra of change and bold rhetoric could remind some of the unstable governments they fled; and they may cling to warm perceptions of Bill Clinton shared in their home countries.
But Wang also suspects that race lurks among the possible reasons behind Asian immigrants’ reticence to back Obama. “The images of African Americans that get exported to other cultures is not often positive,” says Wang, who teaches about pop culture and race. “It’s not unusual to find new immigrants who have never had a meaningful, personal encounter with an African American. So there’s a very uninformed bias,” says Wang.
“Obama is a different kind of African American,” he adds. “His background doesn’t date back to slavery; he’s half-black, half-white; he grew up in Indonesia and Hawaii. In other words, he’s not Al Sharpton. But those nuances get lost when someone comes from a foreign country. To them, it doesn’t translate.”
Some observers think that Obama simply hasn’t made enough of an effort until recently to go after the Asian-American vote. For instance, some Asians were sensitive to being left out of Obama’s rousing stump speeches on racial unity — speeches that mentioned only black and white, according to Don Nakanishi, director of the Asian American Studies Center at the University of California Los Angeles. But following his clean sweep of the Potomac primaries on February 12, Obama pointedly thanked a rainbow of ethnic groups, including Asian Americans. “He can turn it around,” says Nakanishi. “He has a story to tell, one that we would get.”
The tide may already be turning. Since Mineta’s surprising endorsement in February, the former cabinet member has joined the campaign as a surrogate to encourage the support of Asian-Americans. Soetoro-Ng, Obama’s sister, has campaigned actively in Hawaii, conducting interviews and appearing at phone banks and picnics; she is often joined by her husband, Konrad Ng, who is of Chinese descent. The campaign is also running ads on Japanese-language TV networks in Hawaii. Five members of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus support Obama. Asianweekendorsed Obama on its cover. “Asian-American voters are no different,” says Tommy Vietor, spokesman for the Obama campaign. “Once they get to know him and know his ideas, we have their support.”
Alan Shum, 24, an analyst for an investment fund in New York City, cast his vote for Obama. But he also thinks his elders might have a problem doing the same. “Voting for a black candidate is just not something that would jump out at them,” he says. “Chinese people are really racist at times.” He points to the colloquial Chinese for “white” and “black,” which append both words with “devil.” “The vernacular tells you a little about something,” he says. “Chinese people can be very, very insular as a culture — very superior. We look down upon any race that isn’t Chinese.”
But assuming that’s true, then what makes Asian Americans more comfortable with a white candidate than a black one? Clinton might have been slurred last June by the Obama campaign as the “Senator from Punjab” for what it said were her pro-outsourcing stands (the Obama camp later apologized). But Asian she’s not. And her campaign has made its own stumbles, as happened a year ago when a campaign staffer told a local reporter from a San Francisco-based Chinese-language daily newspaper that an event wasn’t open to “foreign press.” (Clinton apparently learned from that mistake, holding a special media event for the Asian-American papers in San Francisco and hiring an Asian-American man, Jin Chon, as a press secretary for specialty media.)
What’s more, there’s the gender factor. Many Asian cultures are patriarchal, and Clinton is the only female candidate in the field. But despite their cultures, many immigrants from those countries may in fact be more familiar than Americans with a female leader: Indira Gandhi in India, Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo in the Philippines, Benazir Bhutto in Pakistan. And many of those leaders, like Clinton, were married to or descended from former leaders.
For Lien Murakami, a systems programmer in Oakland, Calif., however, her choice came down to something far more specific: Clinton’s proposals on aid for Iraqi refugees. A Vietnamese refugee herself, Murakami, 30, looked closely at the two candidates’ stands on that topic among others and found Clinton’s uniformly more detailed and realistic.
The racism charge, she says, is offensive to voters like her and her Japanese-American husband, who conducted extensive research before casting their votes. “It’s generalizing to say that if you support Hillary, you’re not thinking about the candidates but going with what your community leader is telling you — and that you’re racist to boot,” she says.
All this leaves his state very much in the air, says Ira Rohter, a political scientist at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. Race will most certainly play a role, he says — but perhaps not in the way mainlanders might think. For one thing, since Asians are a majority there, voters tend not to think of themselves as one minority voting bloc struggling to make an impact, but rather as sub-groups of specific ethnicities. For another, Obama, being of mixed race, is a familiar entity: two-thirds of babies born in Hawaii are so-called hapas, says Rohter.
“Of course,” says Rohter, “he’s half black, which is different.” Blacks make up a barely visible minority in Hawaii. But historically, many have been members of the military, which retains a presence there — and there is a long history of a “certain tension” between servicemembers and native Hawaiians, who once saw them as an occupational force.
Nevertheless, Don Nakanishi of UCLA expects Obama to “do well” in Hawaii. There are signs the voting bloc long ruled by the Democratic machine there is breaking up, as young and independent voters register for its closed caucuses in unprecedented droves. Nationwide, as Obama’s campaign catches a glimpse of the finish line, it will likely pour more effort into winning over previously written-off groups like Asians. They’ve already won over Nakanishi — he voted for Obama earlier this month.
Here’s an aweseome new grassroots website for Asian Americans/Pacific Islanders supporting Hillary Clinton for President. It’s a great site to connect with other Hillary Clinton supporters and get the word out about Hillary Clinton in the AAPI community. It’s time to have our voices heard! Thanks to Steve and Sophia for creating this website!
Here is the video of the CNN piece that 80-20 is protesting against. In this piece, they interview Asian Americans in Seattle before the Washington state caucus. The piece implies that Asian Americans are voting for Hillary Clinton because they are racist against Barack Obama and do not like change. The media needs to stop marginalizing the votes of Latinos and Asian Americans by implying that those groups are racist against Barack Obama. Latinos and Asian Americans like members of other racial groups vote based on substantial issues. Somehow the media is perplexed that most Latinos and Asian Americans haven’t jumped on the Obama bandwagon and can only rationalize it by saying that these groups are racist against Obama and are fearful of change. This is ridiculous. CNN has done many pieces and segments on the black-brown divide. Now they are trying to do the same with African Americans and Asian Americans. Could the reason that the majority of Latinos and Asian Americans vote for Hillary Clinton is that they like her and she has done some great outreach in those communities? Could it be that they are actually voting for Hillary Clinton and not against Barack Obama? But I guess that storyline is too boring and we need to fabricate division between racial groups to spice things up. It needs to stop. I have included the link to the 80-20 petition that you can sign telling CNN not to marginalize and stereotype Asian American voters. As a Korean American it brings back horrible memories of how the media fanned the flames of racial division by overblowing and manufacturing conflicts between African Americans and Koreans leading up to the L.A. Riots.
New America Media, News Report, Kenneth Kim, Posted: Feb 07, 2008
Editor’s Note: Asian Americans flexed their muscle on Super Tuesday, and emerged as a swing voter bloc in California, where Asian American voters make up 8 percent of the Democratic electorate, reports NAM staff writer Kenneth Kim.
Asian Americans are about 8 percent of the Democratic voters but might have emerged as the new swing vote that helped Hillary Clinton win California. According to a CNN exit poll, about 75 percent of Asian voters cast their ballots for Clinton compared to 23 percent for Obama. In the days leading up to Super Tuesday, Obama had narrowed Clinton’s lead to such an extent that the Asian vote suddenly became pivotal though there was very little advertising in Asian media. With Asians throwing their support behind her, Clinton carried 54 percent of the Democratic electorate in the Golden State, leading Obama by 14 percent in the state and significantly increasing her delegate count.
“Overwhelming Asian support is not surprising,” says David Lee, the executive director of Chinese American Voters’ Education Committee (CAVEC), a non-partisan group in San Francisco. “She invested in building a good relationship with the Asian American community. In contrast, Obama refused to answer questions regarding the advancement of Asian Americans.”
The 80-20 Initiative, a political action committee dedicated to winning equal opportunity and justice for all Asian Americans through a swing bloc vote, asked all presidential candidates to answer the following questions last year: If elected, are you going to increase the number of Asian Americans in the federal judiciary? Are you going to enforce executive order 11246 to ensure equal opportunity for Asian Americans in work places?
Clinton and John Edwards committed to promote Asian American interests by answering yes to all of the questions, but none of the Republican candidates replied. Surprisingly, Obama declined as well. According to the 80-20 Initiative’s website, Obama replied Yes to the questions only after the group modified the wording of two questions about appointing Asian Americans as federal judges. By then the group had already endorsed Clinton for the Super Tuesday primaries.
Obama did galvanize a younger generation of voters. Indian-American actor Kal Penn of “Harold and Kumar” fame campaigned for him and the group South Asians for Obama campaigned for the Illinois senator at Bhangra parties and Bollywood dances. Little India Magazine broke with tradition and endorsed Obama before the primary, saying he was “the son of an immigrant, offers an exciting opportunity to take Americans, men and women, of all races and affiliations, to an exciting new place and time.”
But others in the Asian American community credit Clinton for effectively utilizing her institutional strength in her campaign.
Vivian Truong Gia, publisher of Viet Tribune, says she got to interview Hillary Clinton while Obama did little outreach to Asian Americans. Though the Vietnamese community traditionally votes Republican, many broke ranks to vote for Clinton, says Truong, because “we want America to be strong again and are disappointed with the last eight years. China has become dominant and the United States so weak overseas.” She thinks that if Obama actually secures the nomination many of those who voted for Clinton would end up voting for John McCain.
“Clinton began interacting with and reaching out to Asian community through her network in the community earlier than other presidential candidates,” says Dae Jung Yoon, executive director of Korean Resource Center, a non-profit organization actively engaged in Korean American’s political empowerment. “The head start was reinforced by her name recognition in the Asian American community and put her at an advantage.”
Chinese-language newspaper Sing Tao Daily also noted that many of this year’s Asian and Latino voters became naturalized U.S. citizens during the Clinton administrations between 1992 and 2000, and that Hillary Clinton helping her husband campaign for presidency years ago in the Asian community added to her positive recognition. Sing Tao also said Asian women were particularly anxious to vote for a woman as president.
The enthusiasm of these new voters was obvious, says Yoon at the Korean Resource Center. According to Yoon, between 7:00 a.m. and 5:30 p.m., nearly 500 calls were made to the Korean hotline, a record-breaking number in its 13-year history, and more than 100 people with various questions visited the center. Most of the callers and visitors asked about the location of their polling place and ways to obtain provisional ballots.
“Our handful of staff was completely exhausted by the afternoon. I’ve never seen this level of interest in a primary election,” says Yoon.
Asians, currently 5 percent of the U.S. population, are often ignored as a small community that is not very politically engaged. But it is one of the fastest growing population groups in the country. By 2050, Asian Americans are expected to grow by 213 percent to 33.4 million from 14.4 million, according to the U.S. Census. The population is also becoming increasingly politically active. Weekly newspaper India West ran dueling op-eds in support of Clinton and Obama from Indian Americans before the primary. Vida Benavides, chair of APIAVote, a non-partisan organization promoting Asian civic engagement, said in a press release that Asian American voices “will definitely be heard in electing the next president of the United States.”
Despite Clinton’s California triumph, under rules that award 370 nominating delegates on a proportional basis, both candidates are still in a virtual delegate tie as the primaries move on to other states.
“It’s too premature to conclude that Asians made a difference because both parties still haven’t nominated their presidential candidates,” cautions CAVEC’s Lee. “However, this primary proved the possibility that when Asian Americans participate in the political process, they can make a difference.”
Andrew Lam, Sandip Roy and Jun Wang contributed to this report.
If you look at the MSNBC exit polls from the California Democratic primary, it shows a sharp racial and gender divide.
It’s apparent that there was a huge gender gap as women came out in large numbers for Hillary Clinton over Barack Obama. Clinton beat Obama among women 59%-34%. White women were heavily tilted toward Hillary Clinton (55%-34%) whereas white men heavily favored Barack Obama (52%-34%).
This is what CNN said about how Hillary Clinton won California:
“(CNN) – Sen. Hillary Clinton can thank Latino and Asian voters for her projected victory in California. Early exit polls indicate that Sen. Barack Obama carried white voters in California because of his overwhelming support among white men. White women, as in other states, more often supported Clinton. Black voters overwhelmingly favored Obama but Asian voters, whose numbers are comparable to blacks, went overwhelmingly for Clinton. The deciding factor may have been Latinos, who make up roughly 30 percent of California’s Democratic vote. They went for Clinton by a two-to-one margin.”
If you look at the white vote, it was surprisingly even with Clinton with 45% and Obama with 42%. As expected though, the black vote went overwhelmingly for Obama 78% to 19%. However, unlike in southern states where the black vote made up 45%-55% of the total Democratic primary electorate, the black vote only made up 6% of the total Democratic primary electorate in California. What made the difference for Clinton’s big victory in California was that she crushed Obama with the Latino vote which she won handily 69% to 29%. Latinos made up 29% of the Democratic primary electorate in California. The other group that put Clinton over the top was Asian Americans. Asian Americans made up 8% of the Democratic primary electorate in California and Clinton clobbered Obama among Asian American voters by an overwhelming margin of 75% to 23%. (I wonder how much 80-20′s endorsement of Hillary Clinton in the California Democratic primary influenced Clinton’s 52% advantage over Obama in the Asian American vote?)
Lessons of 1992 - why the message of unity falls short in comparison to the importance of specific policies
Kennedys for Clinton - Three of Bobby Kennedy’s children write about their support for Hillary Clinton and show that there is a split among the Kennedy family between Clinton and Obama
Womens Rights Head Accuses Kennedy of Betrayal - The New York Chapter of the National Organization of Women (NOW) accuses Ted Kennedy of betraying women by endorsing Barack Obama over Hillary Clinton
I’m excited for Super Tuesday. This is an exciting race. I have made some personal observations about the Democratic nomination up this point. These are just my opinions and you may disagree with them, but that’s ok. But here goes:
1.) The Democratic primary will go way past Super Tuesday on Friday 5th. Unlike the Republican primary which is winner-take-all, the Democratic primary divides delegates proportionately. So even the second place winner in a state can win a substantial amount of delegates. I think Hillary Clinton will win the majority of delegates on Super Tuesday. Polls show her with sizeable leads in California, New York, New Jersey, and Arkansas. Those four states together have over half the available delegates on February 5th (22 states will be participating on that day). Presently, Clinton leads Obama in 20 of the 22 Super Tuesday states with the exception of Georgia and Obama’s home state of Illinois. I’m sure the polls will tighten as we get closer to Super Tuesday. So, this will put added importance on states after February 5th, including the Washington state caucus on February 9th. The race will probably go into March and April where large states like Texas, Pennsylvania, and Ohio will have primaries with tons of delegates up for grabs.
2.) Paul Krugman writes a great piece in the New York Times about why specific policies matter. For me it’s substance over style. Barack Obama’s health care plan rejects health insurance mandates which leaves over 15 million people uninsured. That is not universal health care. We know that the Republicans will fight to keep the status quo with health care. But if a Democrat running for President can’t even propose a truly universal health care plan, then we are in trouble. If a Democrat will not lead the fight for universal health care coverage, then it will never happen. Barack Obama can give all the inspirational speeches that he wants. But it won’t change the fact that his health care plan leaves so many people uninsured. He can’t sweet talk his way out of that. Hillary Clinton may not have the same oratory and speaking skills as Obama, but at least her health care plan is truly universal and covers EVERYONE. What do everyday people need, genuine comprehensive health insurance coverage or some nice words from a speech that make you feel warm and fuzzy inside? Hillary Clinton has a passion for health care and covering every American, especially children. I know she will fight for this with every fiber in her body because she has a proven track record of doing so. Beyond the nice words and the fluffy rhetoric, it is the policies that really tell you where the candidates really stand on the issues. That’s why specific policies matter. We are dealing with the lives of real people. That’s why substance should matter more than style.
3.) I think Ted Kennedy’s endorsement was a good thing for Obama. I think it definitely helped to bolster his legitimacy, especially among the Democratic establishment. Ted and Caroline Kennedy annointed Obama the next John F Kennedy. That is definitely high praise, but also a high bar to live up to. There is a split in the Kennedy family as three of Bobby Kennedy’s children, including Robert Kennedy Jr have endorsed Hillary Clinton. Here is an endorsement piece written in today’s LA Times from the three Kennedy’s supporting Hillary Clinton. Ted Kennedy spoke passionately in favor of Obama. Kennedy seemed to be directing his ire on Bill Clinton in particular. Kennedy said some harsh things. I think Obama needs Kennedy because Obama seems uncomfortable playing hardball politics. He just seemed so caught off guard and so incredulous that his opponents would be critical of his record. Even John Kennedy wasn’t adverse to hardball politics and he had the Kennedy machine created by his father behind him. However, I think the media was overblowing the importance of this endorsement. I do think it’s a big deal, but I don’t think it’s Obama is gonna win any states because of Kennedy’s endorsement. I think it helps to bolster Obama’s image, but I don’t necessarily see this as translating into actual votes. But we will have to wait until Super Tuesday.
4.) I believe Bill Clinton will still have a prominent role in the next week. However, I don’t think he will be as abrasive toward Obama and he will be in specific venues. I think Bill Clinton will be out there mobilizing the Democratic base for her, especially in the Latino community where he is extremely popular. Even as a Hillary Clinton supporter, I think Bill should take a step back and let Hillary get the spotlight. Eventually, she will have to show that she can be in the spotlight on her own. Back in 2000, it wasn’t until Al Gore showed himself to be independent of Bill Clinton that he was able to take off. I think Bill will continue to play a prominent role in Hillary’s campaign as he should. He is still popular among a large majority of Americans and even more popular among the Democratic base. Polls show that Obama supporters may be angry at his tactics, but they still like Clinton personally and would support him for a third term if allowed.
5.) Super Tuesday will allow Latinos to play a huge role. California, New York, New Jersey, Illinois, Colorado, New Mexico, and Arizona have large Latino populations. Polls show Latinos overwhelmingly supporting Clinton over Obama. In Nevada, where there is a substantial Latino population, Clinton won the Latino vote over Obama by 40%. Much was made up about Obama receiving the endorsement of the Culinary Union in Nevada. However, a large portion of their Latino members decided to break ranks with their union leadership and voted for Hillary Clinton. Richard Chavez, the son of legendary Latino union leader, Cesar Chavez, has endorsed Clinton. Cesar Chavez’s union, the United Farm Workers have also endorsed Clinton. She has strong support in the Latino community. Some pundits have tried to explain this disproportionate support for Clinton as a result of an ongoing black-brown dispute between African Americans and Latinos. According to some, Latinos will not Obama because he is African American. Even though there may be some validity to that in the margins, I believe the large reason for Latino support for Clinton is name recognition and the popularity of Bill Clinton among Latinos. Hillary Clinton has also been involved in the Latino labor movement nationally and has created good will in that community. Obama may have done things in Illinois, but he does not have the reputation in the Latino community that Clinton does. Some say that Ted Kennedy’s endorsement might sway some Latinos toward Obama. However, to me who would have more sway in the Latino community? Ted Kennedy or Richard Chavez, the son of Cesar Chavez? So it will be interesting to see how Latinos influence Super Tuesday.
6.) It will be interesting to see where the Asian American vote goes in Super Tuesday states like California, New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, and Illinois which have larger Asian American populations. With the whole controversy with 80-20, as Obama has refused to sign onto their demands, they are trying to mobilize Asian Americans voters to vote for Hillary Clinton (check my previous posts if you want more info). Their goal is to mobilize 80% of Asian American voters to vote for Clinton. So it will be interesting to see if they manage to pull that off. Obama’s refusal to sign onto 80-20′s demands has created much controversy in the Asian American community.
7.) I believe the media is pro-Obama. Lee Cowan, NBC reporter who is assigned to cover Barack Obama, admitted that it was hard for him to be objective about Obama because he’s enamored with him. Brian Williams, the NBC nightly news anchor, also inferred his favoritism toward Obama. When Clinton lost Iowa, the media went wild. They ordained Obama as the new king and wrote Hillary Clinton’s obituary. The media was piling on her in New Hampshire and eagerly waiting for her to lose again. There was so much coverage on the Clinton campaign falling apart and how Clinton was done. The media unfairly attacked her for crying publicly. It galvanized support for her. The more the media kept kicking her while she was down, the more it solidified my support for her. Eventually, she won in New Hampshire in stunning fashion when all the polls and pundits had her dead. Obama’s coronation was put on hold. Chris Matthews, the host of the MSNBC show “Hardball” is absolutely an advocate for Barack Obama. He despises the Clintons. He has made numerous sexist remarks about Hillary Clinton. Recently, he had to apologize publicly for some of his comments about Clinton (even though it wasn’t really an apology) because women’s groups put pressure on MSNBC. Watching today’s coverage of Ted Kennedy’s endorsement of Obama, the media turned into the next coming of Camelot. They made it seem like John Kennedy had come back to life and they were turning this into the event that would change the election. We’ll see what happens with that.
8.) While the media has focused on the issues of race, gender, and generation, it has neglected the issue of class. Obama attracts more college educated, wealthier voters, while Clinton attracts blue collar, working class voters. These supporters of Obama also supported Howard Dean, Bill Bradley, and Gary Hart in the past. However, in the end the blue collar, working class voters supported the eventual winner, John Kerry, Al Gore, and Walter Mondale. For Obama to win the nomination, he will need to attract more of these voters as they make up the majority of the Democratic base. E.J. Dionne of the “Washington Post” had a possible explanation for this divide. He observed that for college educated, wealthier voters, they are more attracted to inspiration because specific policies probably won’t affect them directly. For example, they may care about health care, but since they probably have great health care coverage, it is more important to be inspired than to be bored with details of a health plan. For working class, blue collar workers, they are more attracted to perspiration, someone who will work hard for them and who has specific policies. This is important for them because they know that these policies can directly affect them. These are the people who lack or have limited health care coverage and thus are looking toward the specifics of a policy to help them out. So it’ll be interesting to see how this class divide plays out on Super Tuesday.
9.) I am just sick and tired of people dismissing Clinton’s candidacy because she’s a woman. On my way to church, I was listening to KIRO 710 on the radio and an Obama supporter calls in and said Hillary Clinton shouldn’t be president because having a woman in charge would offend Muslim countries (I don’t believe that this person is representative of the vast majority of Obama supporters). I have also heard some people say they don’t trust a woman to fight terrorism and to lead strongly. Others say because of their Christian views, they don’t believe a woman should be President. I’m frankly tired of these ridiculous and sexist views. I want to make two points. First, as a woman Hillary Clinton is in a no win situation. To be the President, she must show her to be strong and tough. When she does that, then she is viewed as mean, heartless, and a five letter word starting with a “B”. On the other hand, if she shows any emotion or a soft side, she is seen as weak and unfit to lead. So either way, she is going to get attacked. Secondly, other nations have had women in charge. Benazir Bhutto was the prime minister of Pakistan. Pakistan is a Muslim nation and they had a woman lead their nation and almost lead them again before her tragic death. We in America tend to think of Muslim nations as backwards when it comes to issues of equality. But even Pakistan has had a woman elected as their leader unlike the US. Other nations such as England, Germany, Israel, India, Nicaragua, New Zealand, the Philippines, among others have had women as their president or prime minister. It is only in the US, where having a woman as a president is so historic. Maybe we are not as forward thinking as we think we are. Women have proven they can lead just as well as men. We’ve had 43 men lead this nation in the last 220 years. I think it’s time to give a woman a chance. Hillary Clinton couldn’t do any worse than the current MAN occupying the White House.
