Political Winds Blowing Jindal’s Way
September 3, 2008
Mother Nature knows no political timing. If Hurricane Gustav had hit the Gulf States last week, the Republican National Convention’s Labor Day start in Minnesota could have been spared, and it could have given GOP presidential nominee John McCain a running mate other than Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin. Hurricane disaster preparations last weekend blew a take-charge Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal into the national spotlight and would have given McCain more of a glimpse of him as a VP candidate. Last July, Jindal raised intense VP speculation after a surprising second meeting with McCain….
QUALITY OF EXPERIENCE: Countering Democratic observations about the veep candidate’s relative inexperience, McCain and Republicans have argued the quality of Palin’s 21 months in office by focusing on her duties as chief executive and commander-in-chief of the National Guard. Jindal, who ironically was swept into office after the inept response to Hurricane Katrina, has been in office only seven months. But this week’s performance imbued him with actual commander-in-chief qualities (like mobilizing 50,000 troops) and a natural disaster portfolio far exceeding Palin’s …
OUT-OF-THE BOX: Jindal like Palin is a conservative and would have been “out-of-the-box” choice as the first Indian American for VP. Jindal-who bowed out of speaking at this week’s GOP convention-could have helped McCain anchor a GOP presidential strategy to hold the South. The former two-term congressman led post-Katrina legislation, which could assuage fallout among Republicans for the federal government’s embarrassing Katrina response…The long-term talk is Jindal for president, with Obama and Clinton cracking the political glass ceiling…
*****Related Articles:*****
“Lipstick on a Pig” Ad Attacks Obama - Pigs OK for Asians
Palin and Giuliani on “Community Organizers”
The GOP’s Paler Than Ever: From the tainted Bush to McCain’s Sarah Palin
Obama: A Cliche is a Terrible Thing to Waste
Political Jiujitsu - Obama & Biden, McCain & Palin
******************************
NOT PREACHING TO THE CHOIR: A South Bay pro-Obama APA activist, an East Bay APA peace officer who voted for Republican Mike Huckabee in the primaries and an APA convention delegate said Obama’s Aug. 25 convention acceptance speech was restrained and absent of the flourishing rhetoric. APA reaction shouldn’t be surprising, since Obama was likely directing his speech towards voters in battleground states like Ohio and Michigan. He lost these states to Clinton and expects to wrestle with McCain for them. McCain blunted momentum from the Obama speech on Aug. 26 by announcing his VP selection in Dayton, Ohio…Obama was expected to deliver sweeping oratory that Martin Luther King, Jr. gave 45 years earlier in his “I Have a Dream Speech.” Obama had the lesson of 2000 Democratic nominee Al Gore, who was occasionally wonky and turned off some voters for mocking Bush’s plainly spoken answers in a presidential debate…
JOHNS, NOT JOHNNY: Who can ply their business on street corners? As reported in here on Aug. 20, the S.F. Democrats voted 18-12 in July to support the decriminalization of prostitution, while opposing 20-10 to restore a JROTC program that fostered leadership and character among 1,000 APA high school students. Here are the votes of APA county committee members on Decriminalizing Prostitution (Prop K): Yes-Filipino American Democratic Club President Joe Julian, school board member Eric Mar; No-Mayor Newsom’s campaign manager Tom A. Hsieh, Asian Pacific Democratic Club leader Mary Jung, Corporate Executive David Chiu, State Senator Leland Yee, Assemblywoman Fiona Ma; Abstain-Board of Equalization member Betty Yee. Restoring S.F. public school JROTC (Prop V): Yes-Hsieh, Jung, Ma, Betty and Leland Yee; No-Chiu, Julian, Mar…
DISTRICT 1 RACE (RICHMOND) FOR SUPERVISOR: The party endorsed Eric Mar for supervisor (20 votes) over Chinese Historical Society of America Director Sue Lee (7 votes) and ESL instructor Alicia Wang (5 votes)… APAs ON RECORD: For Eric Mar-Chiu, Julian, Mar, Leland and Betty Yee; For Sue Lee-Hsieh; For Alicia Wang-Ma, Jung…NOTABLE: U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein and Rep. Jackie Speier supported Lee, while House Speaker Nancy Pelosi aide Melanie Nutter supported Wang. Pelosi was not present to vote. Mar’s vote to decriminalize prostitution (supported by Supervisor Jake McGoldrick who has anointed Eric as his successor) could backfire on him and help Lee or Wang in this supervisor’s race…
DISTRICT 3 (CHINATOWN/NORTH BEACH) RACE FOR SUPE: The party endorsed David Chiu: For Chiu (23 votes)-Chiu, Julian, Mar, Betty and Leland Yee; For former national Organization of Chinese Americans President Claudine Cheng (4 votes): Jung, Ma; Abstain: Hsieh….NOTABLE: Sen. Feinstein supported Claudine Cheng. Chiu-hit by allegations that his political technology firm works with anti-gay agenda PACs-lost the vote of former party chair and former Alice B. Toklas LGBT Democratic Club Co-Chair Scott Wiener, who had originally appointed Chiu to the committee. Lesbian State Senator Carole Migden did not support Chiu and supported Tony Gantner. Chiu was supported by most of the committee’s LGBT members, including Assemblyman Mark Leno and Supervisor Tom Ammiano.
PUSHY POLLS: S.F. Labor Council Director Tim Paulson and teacher union head Dennis Kelly were screaming foul over Karl Rove and “classic Republican Party tactics” used by opponents against their candidate, Eric Mar, in his run for District 1 (Richmond) supervisor campaign. They contend that a Florida firm is using “push polls” to allegedly misinform voters about Mar. Here’s the flip side-the union reaction is an admission that the tactic is hurting Mar, whose APA contenders include Democrats Sue Lee and Alicia Wang….
WE ARE (FIRST) FAMILY: In four years, it’s gotten to a point where the APA community is so big that someone’s related to the next First Family. John and Cindy McCain have 16-year-old Bridget, a Bangladeshi American and adoptee. Barack Obama’s brother-in-law Conrad Ng is Chinese Canadian and married to hapa Maya Soetero-Ng, sister of Barack… 2004 Democratic nominee John and Theresa Kerry’s niece is an adoptee from China…
FEINSTEIN FOR GOV: U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein is contemplating a run for governor, which is indicative of polling that shows that the former S.F. mayor is a formidable candidate to succeed Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in 2010. That also implicitly sends a message about soft polling numbers for gubernatorial candidates-Mayor Gavin Newsom and State Attorney General Jerry Brown-who have ties with the San Francisco Bay Area and the APA community.
NOT-READY-FOR-PRIME-TIME VEEP: Sarah Palin’s nomination should be a windfall for comedians-especially bespectacled Tina Fey who bears a comedic resemblance to the gun-toting hockey mom of five… Just top Tina with a jiffy pop hair doo that looks like a vertical ‘Bird Nest’-center of the 2008 Beijing Olympics…
THUMBS UP FOR UNDERDOG: I’ll ditto last week’s review on “Underdog” having noshed on a $3.99 bratwurst two weeks ago at Rizza Punalan and Max Leung’s oxymoronically named “organic sausage joint” on Irving Street near the Sunset Library. The loosy-goosy hole in the wall advertises opening daily “most of the time” and “around 11:30 am…Usually by noon,” and it closes “around 9 pm…sometimes earlier, sometimes later.” One suggestion for Rizza and Max, replace that sun-washed APA History month poster, which has the AsianWeek logo etched out….
Reach Samson Wong at (415) 321-5886 or swong@asianweek.com.
Comments
Got something to say?