AsianWeek » 80-20 Initiative Endorses Senator Obama for President

80-20 Initiative Endorses Senator Obama for President

By: AsianWeek Staff Report, Aug 07, 2008

Tags: Bay Area |

FOSTER CITY, Calif. — The 80-20 Initiative, the largest Asian American Political Action Committee, announced its endorsement of Sen. Barack Obama for president on August 2.

The 80-20 Endorsement Convention Delegates, composed of equal parts Republicans, Independents and Democrats, came to the decision in a 31-2 vote. Ethnically, the delegates comprise Chinese, Indian, Japanese, Korean and Vietnamese Americans.

According to 80-20, which has 700,000 supporters, their decision to support Sen. Obama was based on his affirmative responses to the group’s questionnaire earlier this year and on the pledge of 2006 Democratic National Committee Chair Howard Dean to work with the group.

Responding to its questionnaire in January, Obama committed to give Asian Americans equal opportunities to rise to top positions in workplaces and Asian American legal professionals equal opportunity to be judges at all levels of the federal courts. Obama also agreed to meet with Asian American national organizations, organized by 80-20 with the Labor Department, to review progress.

In October 2006, Dean promised to work with 80-20 to encourage Congress to hold a public hearing on Asian Americans and the glass ceiling in the workplace.

The 80-20 Initiative also has stated that should Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal be chosen as Sen. John McCain’s running mate, the convention may reconvene. Jindal’s presence, they said, would be helpful in increasing equal opportunity for Asian Americans.

Comments

The decision making body of the 80-20 endorsement had NO Filipinos? Not to mention many other AA ethnicities.

The exclusion of Filipinos is inexcusable. And shows how well 80-20 “represents” the Asian American community.

–80-20 Excludes Filipinos on Aug 07, 2008
The credibility of this 80-20 organization would be undermined if Asians go 80-20 for MCCAIN!

–AsianPresident on Aug 07, 2008
Wait a sec, didn’t McCain refuse to respond to that all important 80-20 questionaire a while back? And didn’t McCain once call Asians “gooks”? And isn’t Bobby Jindal once of the most right-wing ultra-conservative Republicans in the country?

So tell explain to me why 80-20 would even consider endorsing McCain? This has to be once of the lamest half-hearted endorsements I have ever seen.

–Randy on Aug 08, 2008
Oh, and I forgot to mention: Bobby Jindal is a supporter of “intelligent design”, which is against the theory of evolution. But hey, we’ll throw our lot in with the same fanatics that believe that Dinosaurs and humans lived together like a Flintstone’s cartoon if it means an Asian gets elected, right?

–Randy on Aug 08, 2008
I don’t care much for that 80-20 organization and most Asians dont’ either. But I do applaud the intent of any organization to marshall the political strength of Asians.

Unfortunately, this 80-20 PAC went out the questionaire thing in a very clumsy and awkward way. It sent a series of “demands” that the next President guarantees the appointment of Asians to high federal offices, in specific percentages to boot.

The way I look at it, any president nowadays would probably appoint some qualified Asians anyway, either with, or without blatant pressure from a questionable PAC. But the way this 80-20 sent out questonaires and demanded that candidates mark “yes” to all the questions, is awkward, like a clumsy guy walking to a woman at a nightclub and screaming “f**k me, f**k me, or else!” This 80-20 backed itself to a corner when it demanded that the candidates accept all its specific demands or the candidates will not receive support from the AA community. Now it finds itself in a ridiculous situation of endorsing Obama, and implicitly promising to deliver 80% of AA votes for him, when most Asians are against Obama. (I would be generous to say that Obama could receive 30% of AA support.)

Now, the “gook” remark, which is 8 years old, was regrettable, but McCain was referring to the thugs who broke half the bones in his body. McCain lost the full use of his limbs for the rest of his life. I would cut him some slack there. Vietnamese-Americans are some of the most enthusiastic McCain supporters.

Jindal: I don’t think he’d be the running mate anyway, but he’ll be running for president in the next 10 years or so. He IS an ultra-conservative, meaning, he is tough on crime, (he signed a legislation authorizing the castration of violent sex offenders such as men who repeatedly rape little girls.), he supports (and enacted in his state) school vouchers which help deserving students escape the jungles of the urban schools, he encourages corporations to move to his state by providing investment incentives. Contrast this ultra-conservative with an ultra-liberal like Obama who would legalize drugs, lessen penalties for criminals, dumb down and “equalize” schools even further, and destroy the economy by punishing the “rich and corporate interests.”

Also, I’m not concerned about the “intelligent design” issue. Jindal was a biology major at Brown and a Rhodes Scholar. He is also a politician who understand the sensitivities of working and middle class Americans who find comfort and refuge in an otherwise cruel universe with a god concerned about their welfare. Most high school kids today don’t pay enough attention in biology classes to know the distinction between godless materialism and evolution+god. This ID issue is a small political price to pay to garner the support for more important conservative social and economic causes.

–AsianPresident on Aug 08, 2008

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