The Candidates' Asian American Problem
One of the main reasons this presidential election has been historic is that every imaginable demographic has been in play. Long ignored constituencies have suddenly appeared on the screens of political operatives.
Speculation abounds. Will African American vote break the Republican stranglehold on the south? Can Republican nominee McCain split the Latino vote? Will young voters make the Dem candidate invulnerable? None of these questions seemed remotely imaginable before January.
But Asian Americans still get no love.
A presidential forum this past weekend in Irvine, California, organized by APIA Vote confirmed this. Before a reported crowd of 1,000, none of the candidates even bothered to show.
Clinton did a canned speech and took no questions, despite her heavy reliance on Asian Americans for the plum Super Tuesday primary victory in California. McCain's supporters claimed he couldn't access the satellite tech to make the appearance, even though he was in New York City to tape Saturday Night Live, a show that happens to be broadcast, uh, live via satellite.
(Hmmm, what genius thought that excuse would get over with Asians?)
Obama literally phoned it in from Oregon. But he spoke about his family--which is as Asian as it is African and white--and took questions--including a thorny one about Native Hawaiian sovereignty in his state of birth. If Clinton took the Asian American vote in key states earlier this spring, credit Obama for not taking it for granted looking toward the fall.
Obama has been accused of having an "Asian American" problem. He did. Last year, Obama's campaign staff issued a memo criticizing Clinton's support for outsourcing by mocking her as the Democratic Senator from Punjab. Obama quickly distanced himself from the comments but no heads rolled over the foulup.
Truth be told, the other campaigns look like they have it worse.
Last month, Hillary Clinton's campaign rallied white voters in Pennsylvania with what Emil Guillermo calls "yellow peril" ads. No one on her lengthy list of Asian American endorsers jeopardized their delegate seats by making any noise about it.
Worse, McCain has never apologized for his "I hate the gooks" comment. (Add that to his ongoing denial of his own pastor problem--even the pastor apologized, kinda--and you've got a pattern.)
So leave it to Def Slammer Beau Sia to rock the event with this rant. Too bad that by the time he got onstage most of the political operatives had left.
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Comments
1.
Jayda310 says:
I heard another poet put it, we don't wanna be the whatever when candidates make the speeches about "I don't care if you're Black, White, green, whatever." Why give green a shout out, no Martians are eligible to vote
05/21/2008 at 5:01 PM
2.
hawaii says:
Barack Obama did an excellent job at the town hall despite the limitations of the phone participation. His answers to questions on the war, immigration, health disparities and other issues resonated with the audience.
Obama is the only candidate with a board-based national grassroots organization of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders. We look forward to working with him and his campaign in engaging with AAPI communities after he becomes the Democratic nominee.
05/20/2008 at 3:19 PM