Scripted and Real
August 27, 2008
Political conventions are carefully scripted productions. They represent the weaving together of many competing interests into a coherent whole that is presented to the public.
While only C-SPAN and National Public Radio supplied uninterrupted political convention coverage, the blogosphere, the Pacifica Radio Network and other media outlets also provided excellent coverage of the Democratic Party Convention that took place this week in Denver.
Reading the list of speakers at the Democratic convention, it is heartening to see the diversity of Asian Pacific Americans in such high visibility positions. On Monday, the powerful Democratic National Rules Committee was co-chaired by Sunita Leeds, who also serves as chair of the DNC’s Indo-American Leadership Council. Congresswoman Doris Matsui served as the conference parliamentarian. And one of the most highly anticipated speeches of the evening was given by a multi-racial white-Indonesian American high-school teacher from Hawai‘i, Barack Obama’s half-sister Maya Soetoto-Ng.
Hillary Clinton was the big name speaker on Tuesday, but California Congressman and DNC Vice-Chair Mike Honda also spoke that afternoon, as did California State Controller John Chiang. Chiang invoked the words of John F. Kennedy to inspire support for Obama.
At the end of the evening, after Clinton’s speech, a formal benediction was given by Aurora, Colo.-based Methodist ministers Jin Ho Kang and Yoougsook Kang.
Wednesday’s focus was on Bill Clinton and Vice Presidential nominee Joe Biden, but Iraq War veteran and former Illinois Congressional candidate Tammy Duckworth also took her turn at the podium.
Behind the scenes, there were 25 percent more APA delegates to this convention than to the 2004 convention. Delegates are the voters in this convention who set the rules and decide who becomes a party-endorsed candidate, so this was another form of power that was held by the APA community.
Thirteen official DNC-recognized caucus groups met, and topping the alphabetical list were the Asian American and Pacific Islander Caucus meetings. Two officially recognized APA blogs — sepiamutiny.com and aaa-fund.com — delivered exclusive interviews and on-the-scenes commentary that will still be fascinating to read after the convention is over. Visit www.sepiamutiny.com and www.aaa-fund.com for details.
Aside from the many informal meetings and discussions in the hotels and corridors of the convention center, three major APA-related events were held in Denver. On August 24, the Asian American Action Fund, with co-hosts the Colorado AAPI Democrats, Asian Pacific Americans for Progress, Rep. Honda and the Obama for America AAPI Vote Team, held an AAPI Colorado Summit. Local Colorado and national community leaders and activists discussed AAPI participation in the electoral process, the Obama AAPI Vote Team Toolkit, critical issues and policies of the AAPI community and strategies for reaching AAPI Voters.
On August 25, Honda, the congressman who represents the San Jose area and who also serves as head of the Congressional APA Caucus, joined Minnesota Congressional candidate Ashwin Madia, the Obama APA Outreach Team, APA Delegates and Battleground State party leaders for an Asian Pacific American Power Hour. This event focused on strategies to integrate APA outreach into the Obama Campaign, make outreach to APA communities a priority for each state’s Democratic Party and get more APAs into the political process.
Later that evening, APIA Vote hosted a gala with a “Living the Dream” theme that it will reprise shortly at the Republican convention in Minnesota. As a non-profit, non-partisan group, API Vote’s goal was to honor and celebrate the legacy of AAPI political leadership, and many leaders attended.
Among the many unscripted moments where APAs made a difference were an informal and very candid interview conducted by Asian American Action Fund Executive Director Gautam Dutta with longtime DNC leader and TV commentator James Carville. Carville updated his 1992 battle cry into a slogan that could win the race for the Democrats in 2008: “It’s REALLY the economy, stupid!”
Carville was good, but one could not help but wonder if he was afraid of an Indian American with a video camera, after the “macaca moment” featuring an Indian American blogger brought down the campaign of Republican Senator George Allen in Virginia in 2006.
AsianWeek columnist Maeley Tom, Gloria Caoile and others who had attended Democratic conventions for many years remarked how there were so many new APA faces and so many APAs in positions of leadership and influence at this year’s convention. It was another indicator that APAs were continuing their march from margin to mainstream, and from the plantation house to the White House.
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