APA Heritage Month: Clinton vs. Obama, winner: Clinton

By John | Tuesday, May 6, 2008 | No Comments

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Well, another split decision between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama in the Democratic presidential nomination as Clinton wins Indiana last night and Obama wins North Carolina. But more importantly for the 8Asians audience, who wins when it comes to each candidate’s statements on the month of May – Asian Pacific American (APA) Heritage Month ? I say Hillary Clinton.

Earlier this month, The White House, as well as Hillary Clinton and Barack Oabama put out their statements on APA Heritage month (interestingly, John McCain did not (or I couldn’t find it) – though he did put out a statement for Passover.) As someone who covers a lot of Asian American politics issues for 8Asians, this is my take on Clinton’s and Obama’s statements. (Note: I am currently a Clinton supporter, but will support Obama if he wins the nomination, though I definitely respect McCain’s service to our country. This is my own person opinion and does not reflect anybody else associated with 8Asians, which is committed to being non-partisan and endorses no one.)

In her statement, Clinton discusses many of the issues facing Asian Americans, including: restoring veterans’ benefits to Filipino veterans who were called into service and fought under the United States flag during World War II, universal health care amongst a broad diversity of groups represented under the monolithic category of “Asian Americans”, affordable higher education (noting that many have succeeded academically, many as well have not) and immigration reform addressing the backlog of family visas. Finally, Clinton states that 20% of her staff is Asian American. If you ask me, that’s pretty awesome and impressive – especially considering she’s not representing Hawaii or California, but New York).

As for Obama’s statement on APA Heritage month, it’s fairly generic. Obama discuses that he has family members (like his half-sister) who are of Asian decent and that he grew up in Hawaii and Indonesia. He then outlines the challenges we as a nation face, including the wars in Iran & Iraq, the environment, quality and accessible (reducing language & cultural barriers) health care, affordable higher education, renewable energy, programs for minority-owned small businesses, comprehensive immigration reform, restoring the rule of law and regional security in Asia. He goes on to thank his Asian American volunteers who’ve helped his campaign in so many ways. If you ask me, Obama’s list of challenges were addressable to all Americans, not necessarily to any specific needs of the Asian American community, which is too bad considering Obama is addressing the Asian American community!

Last year, I had met California State Controller John Chiang (D) prior to Chiang endorsing Clinton, and asked him who he was going to endorse. As the highest elected Asian American politician in state government in the United States (as well as a Californian politician), Chiang’s endorsement was highly sought after by all the major candidates. Chiang said he had met and spoken with Clinton, Edwards and Obama and they all knew the issues well – 2 or 3 levels deep, but Chiang said what impressed him the most was that Clinton knew all the issues 8 levels deep and was deeply impressed by her knowledge and smarts. I’ve known John Chiang before he was state controller, voted for him and value his opinion and endorsement. For whatever reason, Asian Americans have overwhelmingly been voting for Clinton in the Democratic primaries. At least from Clinton’s APA Heritage Month statement, Clinton has shown that she is aware of Asian Americans’ specific issues as well as has plenty of Asian American representation on her staff.

Me & John Chiang

At the end of the day though, I think that both Clinton and Obama will address the needs of both Asian Americans and all Americans a lot better than the Republicans and Senator John McCain. If you know me, you know I am counting down the days until George W. Bush is out of office at http://www.backwardsbush.com.

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