This morning, I went through my morning rituals of reading all the major political news of the day (starting with Eyes On Obama of course, lol). And I came across a diary entry on DailyKos that I found really insulting. The title was "Webb's wife is Asian: Not going to Happen". For those who don't understand what it means, it was a post about the diminished prospects of Senator Jim Webb becoming Obama's running mate because his wife happens to be Asian.

 

For those who have read my posts before and know that I'm from Paris, France, I should also say that my parents emigrated from Vietnam in the late 70s. Jim Webb's "Asian" wife, as the diarist stated, is from Vietnam as well. I find this diarist's perspective deeply personally offensive, but I also believe that it is a baseless argument and I will try and refute it on those grounds.

 

First of all, someone who is not willing to vote for Obama because his running mate's wife is non-white, probably won't vote for Obama because he is black! I don't believe that identity politics is additive and that somebody would actually think to himself, "well I would have voted for Obama even though he's black, but his running mate's Asian wife is a deal breaker." The fact is Obama has a black wife and black children as well as a half-Asian half-sister that he publicly talks about. McCain has an adopted daughter from a Mother Theresa orphanage (that has mysteriously disappeared from the campaign trail, by the way), so I don't think that spouses and children will become legitimate campaign issues.

 

I've stated why the "Asian" wife of Jim Webb probably wouldn't hurt the ticket, but could it help? The diarist claims that Asians are only found in high concentrations in reliably blue states. While it is true that California and New York have a high percentage of the 11.9M Asians in America, 10.9% and 5.5% respectively, they can be found in strong concentrations in other states as well. Asian-Americans are a key swing demographic in several purple states. According to the 2000 Census estimate, Asians make up 3.7% of the population in Virginia, 4.5% in Nevada, 5.7% in New Jersey and 4% in the reliably red state of Alaska. If you look at the Vietnamese population in particular, there are strong concentrations in California, Texas, Washington and Virginia.

 

The other thing I can say anecdotally is that many if not most Asians have very conservative values and so shifting their vote away from McCain would be a tremendous coup. Our nanny is a Vietnamese American who has almost no economic reason to vote Republican but cast her ballot in the California Primary for McCain. I can tell that the immigrants of my parents' generation were scarred by communism and have always voted conservative as a result. Many incorrectly associate liberalism with communism. If we are to believe in the identity politics that the diarist bases his arguments on, then securing the Asian voting bloc could be the key to victory in November.

I am in no way advocating of behalf of an Obama/Webb ticket. I don't know much about Senator Webb beyond what has been written in our Veepstakes section. I understand that he had a distinguished military career and served in the Reagan Administration. I've also heard that he may have made some sexist comments in the past which is a much more legitimate attack on his fitness for the job than his wife's race.

 

It's perfectly acceptable to judge the wife of a candidate on her merits, but skin color and ethnicity are not merits. Putting up with the rigors of being the wife of a prominent politician cannot be easy and she seems to pull it off with grace, beauty and class. The fact that Jim Webb has made it as far as he has is as much a tribute to her strength as it is to his. My "non-Oriental" father-in-law is one of the most successful medical device entrepreneurs in history, and he regularly gives full credit for his success to his lovely Vietnamese wife. I also take full credit for my husband's success whether he likes or not. :)

 

This hopeless, cynical view of America is exactly what Senator Obama has been defeating during his successful campaign for the Democratic Nomination for President.  The diarist is welcome to keep this warped perspective long after we inaugurate President Obama.

Link to Content

Racism is still rampant in this country. I don't know if you caught this video, but it's worth taking a look.

Obama Faces Racism in West Virginia.

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Sorry about that. Here is the link: www.youtube.com/watch

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Looks like racism/ethnicity and all other pertinent scapegoats are being addressed-no matter the comfort zone-FINALLY!! And ONGOING - Thank God!!! The Obama administration is the new face of America and represent the world up front NOW!!! It reminds me of pouring clean water into a dirty urn, eventually, the urn has clean water pouring over. As we rid ourselves individually of the hatefulness of old, we can drag along the ones still polluted until one day we are all of the same heart. Because it is only about our heart isn't it?

ceci: that's a beautiful metaphor. let's pour that water faster!