The Asian American vote...could be moving decisively to the Democratic Party

[babylonsister]

Asians Shading Blue
The Asian American vote was once split, but now it could be moving decisively to the Democratic Party
By Mira Jang, July 26, 2008
Image: SF poster

A campaign poster in San Francisco days before the Feb. 5 California primary.


When exit polls showed that Hillary Clinton won the Asian American vote 3-1 against Barack Obama in the California primary, some pundits and scholars blamed racism for Clinton’s margin. If it had been true that a significant number of Asian Americans rejected Obama because of his race, John McCain should have an opportunity to capture these votes in the general election. But after Clinton conceded defeat, a June SurveyUSA poll found that 68 percent of Asian Americans in California, regardless of party affiliation, said they would vote for Obama, while only 27 percent said they would support McCain. No other group expressed stronger support for Obama, including whites and Latinos.

It’s tempting to conclude from these results that a strong majority of Asian Americans will back Obama, but the Asian sample size was probably too small. Except for the California and New York/New Jersey exit polls, no other scientifically sound survey measured Asian American opinion of the presidential candidates. "It's a group that is understudied and underpolled," says Sergio Bendixen, president of polling firm Bendixen and Associates, which conducted a rare national political survey of Asians in 2004. "The media doesn't pay attention to these voters, which is a mistake."

But on the basis of extensive interviews conducted among Asian voters in Southern California and discussions with political scientists and other experts who study the Asian American vote, it is possible to draw tentative conclusions about where Asian American voters are headed, and these conclusions bear out what polls have found. Asians are becoming more Democratic with each election, and Barack Obama is likely to benefit from this trend.

more...

http://newsinitiative.org/story/2008/07/25/asians_shading_blue

[Middle finga]

1. Then McCain must be winning the white vote by a huge margin

It seems Obama is winning Asian and Latino vote by at least 3-1 and he's getting 90% of black support so that means McCain must be making up the deficit with a big lead in white voters, cause McCain should be trailing by at least 15% in every poll.

[babylonsister]

2. Do you trust the polls? Who exactly is being polled?

I've read they are being skewed to make this look like a tight race, but don't really know.

[Vogon_Glory]

3. To Think That Asian-Americans WERE Voting Republican Not So Long Ago

To see that Asian-Americans are now increasingly voting Democratic speaks volumes about the right-wing idiocies that are driving Republican Party politics. Not so long ago, Asian-Americans were voting Republican, and hundreds of thousands of them voted for Nancy Reagan's hubby and Bush-the-father. It looked like a significant ethnic block was lost to the Democratic Party.

But like a low-bottom drunk that couldn't stay away from the booze, the right-wing Republicans reverted to race-baiting. With Wen Ho Lee and other manufactured "scandals," right-wing activists and politicos decided that it was better to keep the hard-right base happy with nativism and code-word racism. The image of a "Lilly-white" yesteryear seemed to be more important than the multi-racial present.

I expect that there are a lot of Asian-Americans out there who feel burned and spurned by the GOP. They may not be liberals per se, but they aren't going to vote Republican these days.

[Orangeone]

4. Just remind them

Of the "gook" comment. Hell no we are not going to vote for McCain!