Party leaders, officials may decide Democratic nominee
Forget talk of the Asian American swing vote — those who are really poised to influence the Democratic nomination are the Asian Pacific American superdelegates.
These party leaders and elected officials each have a vote at this summer’s Democratic National Convention, where it now appears the party’s nominee will be decided in light of the current neck-and-neck delegate race between Sen. Hillary Clinton and Sen. Barack Obama.
The Democratic nominee must garner 2,025 out of 4,049 total delegates, but because Clinton and Obama are so close in the delegate count, superdelegates may end up deciding the nominee for the first time ever.
Out of the 796 superdelegates, only 26, or 3.27 percent, are Asian Pacific American; 12 have pledged to vote for Clinton, four have committed to Obama and 10 remain unpledged.
But even those that have stated support for either Clinton or Obama are free to change their minds at any time before the convention balloting in August.
Superdelegates are culled from party leadership, Democratic National Committee membership and elected-official ranks, which may explain why Clinton, with her extensive ties to the party establishment, is leading in many superdelegate counts from CNN to CBS and the Associated Press.
But superdelegates may also consider the choices of their constituents, although unlike pledged delegates, they have no mandate to do so. Momentum and considerations about who would be the best candidate to counter presumptive Republican nominee John McCain are also factors for some superdelegates.
Melissa Chin and Taylor Chen contributed to this report.
Asian Americans should back Hillary Clinton because I believe she is the only candidate who will address in an unbiased fashion, the needs of Asians in this country.
alee~
what are you basing your opinion on? between the two obama would probably have the most unbias’d mindset. His back ground prove it. Hill is white american privaledge. Please convince me otherwise.
Obama actually has a half-sister that is half-Asian, a brother-in-law that is Asian, and have lived in SE Asia himself. Can we name one thing the Clinton’s have ever done for Asian Americans?
Of course Nia isn’t biased at all playing the “white american privaledge” card.
If Asian Americans super Delegates vote against Obama, they would be voting against an historical change in the U.S. by backing Hillary. The overt racism tied to her campaign does not end with Blacks and anyone that thinks it is naive. Asian political power and acceptance
will grow with an Obama nomination, because the majority white population will be more accepting of minorities.
It’s obvious that a vote for Obama is a vote for the hard work that our Asian ancestors worked for. This race is based upon candidates that you see eye to eye with whether on issues or something else, as part of a growing minority I can definitely say I back Obama!
Obama 08
Asian are prejudice and racist. Why we are prejudice toward black and kiss the white? Obama is the one.
Why are people writing in “pidgin”?
If they can access and post, they can also read and access a dictionary.
Only stereotypes in old Gollywood flix “talk” this talk or walk this walk.
By the way, Jim Erbes, glad you finesse’d Nia’s “privileDge” into your succinct but meaningless “comment.”
Bottom line: spelling and “pidgin” are irrelevant herein, only issues and valid arguments matter.
And, further along the line of “the end” here, read today’s London Guardian piece on the Russian and global mafias now rivalling governments and politics for “hegemony,” Tibet and Olympics notwithstanding.
And that new mineral-resource “compound,” colton?, mined in West? Africa and required for the nanotechnologies of all our newest and must-have gadgets and gizmos.
More precious than diamonds? Or gold, even at a thou-an-ounce? Well, the dollar has deteriorated, and we are in a free-fall “recession”?
Clinton did Obama a favor by panic-buttoning the race/religion card, if he still manages to wangle that “nomination,” which he may yet accomplish — because the electorate has finally awakened to the fact that the only way they can stop the royal screwing they are, and have been, getting is — CHANGE.
And Clinton is barely “left” of McCain, if at all.
Hey, maybe when the first airbus arrives for domestic flights, I can afford the price of the bus ticket. If I live that long, that is. And if the lower-case apocalypse has not yet arrived. OR armageddon in the Middle East. West Africa? Sub-Saharan Africa? The Sudan? Somalia? The Afghani/Pakistan border? East Timor? All of the foregoing?
Ah, we DO live in such interesting times.
The conformist millenials’ (born after ~1980) real problem is classism. But they have no clue how to overcome it, and take credit for overcoming racism instead. Even more, millenials use the Black classes as a surrogate because they [are] overwhelmingly poor in this country. How many poor black family living rooms have you actually been invited? –The previous generations had it much much worse than you on racism, so don’t call Clinton supporters racists–
Barack was against the war when he didn’t have to vote in 2002. After he actually was elected to Congress, he voted the same as Hillary.
–you millenials might want to check out his stance on selective service too; oh, that’s called the draft for you young ‘uns. Good luck, and good night.
hey check out the McCain ad!
Interesting the SDs are leaning to Clinton.
Asians used to be net republican, we’re still the only nonwhite group that’s not completely lopsided to democrats.
Don’t tell me Asians are prejudiced. When I was in Boston, Asians had to watch out both in Irish Southie and African American Roxbury. Everybody race has people who hate every other race, and I could go on and on on tensions between Chinese, Japanese, Koreans, SE Asians, Taiwan vs. Shanghai Chinese etc.
At least McCain doesn’t go to a church that identifies a certain color and class of people as black America’s enemy.
Oh and Mr. Wright … Obama IS white (half) he IS rich ($1m annual income, 1.5m home) and IS powerful.
Call me crazy, but I predict Obama will be dumped by the Dems by summer, delgates or no delegates, and McCain will defeat Clinton. America wants a good old fashioned Ford Explorer, not a yuppie BMW.
Art:
Golly gee. You’re having a field day in our online “comment”aries.
Bully for you.
Last night, I wrote, writ?, a bit here in response beforehand, psychic that I am, but, somehow, my deathless observations got lost in the online mail, and I figured someone out there knew better than I. Me?
Whothll doesn’t?
Whatever, I wrote to remind you that my apology, which you graciously accepted, was on the personal level of family references, and NOT “political.”
On which last point and word, I think you are razzling-dazzling yourself far too early and far too enthusiastically.
For one, I hope you are “right,” as in “correct” about Asian Americans toppling from the conservative GOP columns into the ranks of the rabble Dems.
But what has that got to do with the electorate at large, other than “our” being with either the “winners” or the “losers” come November, with scant acknowledgement either way.
You continue to evince all the conflictions and afflictions of the overpowered and underprivileged.
Yes, you need not challenge the “white” “power structure” your parents came here to join. Or emulate.
On the other hand, neither do you need to embrace same.
At least not without some sane and logical questions.
I won’t eat my hat, don;t have one, only a cheapie knit-yarn skullcap of declasse origin, should your er, ah, “hero” emerge our next lower-case president.
After all, a malingerer C-minus? Yalie is the incumbent and a malaprop, stumbling fool at that.
And ANYone, including your candidate, would be an improvement.
That said, his minuses are at least the “equal” of Obama’s, and the proof of this plum(b)-nasty pudding seems, to me, a toss-up. And whoever “wins,” please taste that pudding for me. I’ll wait for break fast next morn.
Frank
P.S.: I always KNEW “Gilligan’s Island” was a terrible half-hour to waste.
.
This is all Howard Dean’s fault for promoting the 50-state strategy leftover from his grass roots campaign, but then not being able to come up with a solution for Florida and Michigan better than, “you won’t be seated at the convention in August.” Sounds like whiners on a playground taking the ball home. And, pushing against state’s rights – not a smart thing to do.
I hope the superdelegates can show some progressive leadership, and not strip-tease like Richardson.
btw Mr. Eng, … nevermind
Dear Bohn Mah:
You really know how to hurt a guy. Or were you referring to the young one?
On the other hand, did you catch today’s Counterpunch by Ralph Nader? Even if he is running again, it’s worth reading.
Also, note headline on Cindy Sheehan’s run against Nancy Pelosi.
And it seems to me the joker in the headlines about THE endorsement, belly-dance notwithstanding, and Condi’s “apology” to all three aspirants is the intrigning fact that one more piece of the federal government has been auctioned off to a couple “private” firms. Onshoring? Well, at least the employed are natives.
Oh, and one more thing, McCain, Lieberman whispering advice, seems to have conceded a revamp tactically whilst staying the hegemonic course in Iraq, and the upcoming summer slugfest sounds like victory-still winners vs. unemployed losers in a dicey marketplace fit only for indentured labor. “Contracted”? That too.
Ah, these Corporate States of America.
Salute the Flag.
Frank Eng
P.S.: What’s “states’ rights”? Anything like cities’ rights, like that of Berkeley? Oh, never mind.
Frank Eng, you mean the People’s Republic of Berkeley?.. Hey I think I did catch that Nadar article, but too long ago for me to remember. And wow; I wondered what happened to Sheehan. Maybe a hard roll rolled off the table and hit her in the head. -good for her though. Nancy’s prolly more concerned about her daughter’s run for the whitehouse in in 2025. Hey Frank, you know the difference between a Lobbyist and a campaign volunteer? A: about 5 i.q. points. ‘Latently’,
-BMah
Dear Bohn Mah:
I dig your style the most.
Like, hip, baby.
As for lobbyists vis-a-vis volunteers, I think the differences are more geographical than mental, although there is no way to measure cupidity-vs.-altruism.
The lobbyist skulks about the halls of “power,” and the volunteer lurks on the fringes of the highways and the byways.
Yeah, poor Cindy is learning exactly how unfeeling AND obtuse are the “constituents,” but Nancy may also be buying her own farm in her speakership “actions” and “inactions.”
Sooner or later, preferably sooner.
The Obama matter, however, ius mooting itself, for sure. I, for one, never expected too much, but the blurring of the “boundaries” between him and Billary daily dozes, and the politicking between him and McCain is as edifying as most of our “posts.”
That said, Nader’s article was spot-on, but who reads, never mind listens? This guy is the personification of our “Chinaman’s chance.”
And, maybe that’s why Obama is bending, slanting?, almost supine? on issues like Afghanistan, Palestine, Jerusalem, and even domestic “surveillance,” the last a red-herring, blue?, insofar as the matter is purely academic and the feds always get what they want and, besides, they already “know” and simply want to intimidate.
Ah, “change,” as in “small,” or in “short-,” even ONE single degree might help, but . . . H E L P !
So let’s march on to the confetti conventions and thence to the show of shows come November.
Frank Eng
P.S.: Your only “flaw” in “reasoning: here is that you seem to believe that ANY candidate would put a single grain of rice in your bowl. You’re going to have to hustle and rustle-up your own harvests, like the rest of us.