Is America ready for an Asian American Vice President? This idea may not be as farfetched as some may think. Take it from Russ Limbaugh, the country’s most-listened-to political commentator and highly respected thinker in the country’s conservative sector. As reported in mainstream media, Limbaugh had suggested that Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal–an Indian American and the first Asian Pacific American to be elected to that position–would be a good vice presidential partner to Sen. John McCain (AZ), who is the likely Republican Party nominee for the November 4 presidential elections. Limbaugh was quoted to have said among Republican circles: “I am going to give you a name that would make me jump up with joy – Bobby Jindal. I did an interview with him. He is the next Ronald Reagan, if he does not change.”

An Asian PacificAmerican Reagan?

All the Republican presidential aspirants, including McCain, proudly claim to be the most Reagan of them all, if not the next Reagan himself – but an Asian Pacific American Reagan?

Limbaugh added, “He is young. He was just sworn in for his first term. He’s the guy that beat the liberal Democrat machine throughout Louisiana. He did it on 100 per cent conservatism.”

Dan Balz wrote in a February 11Washington Post story, “Political pundits also declared that ifMcCain picks Jindal, he could negate Democrat Barrack Obama’s diversity factor.”

In a society that appreciates the eternal search for the fountain of youth even in politics, Jindal can pit his 36-year old youthfulness to Democratic Senator Barack Obama’s 46, and make up for McCain being a septeguanarian.

“I’m all for it!” Dr. Sambhu Banik, an Indian-born psychology professor and head of Maryland’s Human Rights Commission, told Asian Fortune. “Bobby will be a heck of a good vice presidential candidate. He’s smart, articulate and does a good job in everything he does.”

“It’s too bad the Republican Party did not pick him as convention keynote speaker like what the Democrats did by picking Obama,” he added, seeming to imply that Obama was thus advantaged early on to have hitched his leg up the presidential ladder.

[Note: Jindal was just being elected to his first term as U.S. Representative for Louisiana in the 2004 presidential elections– a position he held until he ran for governor and won in 2007.]

But Jindal is not the only Asian Pacific American election-related issue that got catapulted to the nation’s attention.

While themention of “Asian”was curiously neglected in references to racial and ethnic voting populations, e.g. Hispanic and Black, in earlier stump speeches by politicians, it finally came but with a thud. For what has finally gained public attention is the question linking Asians to probable racism in determining who to vote for.

What started it this time was a segment “The Asian-American Vote” in CNN’s Anderson Cooper 360 which gave a somewhat skewed impression that some Asians vote because of color.

When a young Asian female was asked in the impromptu interview by CNN reporter GaryTuckmanwhomshewould vote for, she hesitated a little then said, “The white lady.” And when asked further if she liked Obama, she answered “Not really.”

Can one conclude that she prefers Clinton because she iswhite and does not like Obama because he is black; and therefore, can further conclude, based on those answers, thatAsians are racist?

Obama’s ‘Asian Problem’?

The pejorative swing took farther distance when Time magazine picked it up. An article in its Feb. 19, 2008 issue notes that Asian votes went to Hillary Clinton in great percentages and less for Obama, and thus asks “Does Obama Have an Asian Problem?”

Because “one ethnic group has voted consistently–and overwhelmingly–for his rival,” author Lisa Taguechi Cullen notes that this generated a debate “that has raised a very sensitive, ugly question: Could some Asian Americans not be voting for Obama simply because he’s black?” There are other interpretations.

In another article about the California primary in which a whopping 75 per cent of Asian American voters went for Clinton, Jaime Regalado, a political science professor at California State University, Los Angeles, was quoted to have explained, “Asians tend to run to the mainstream in the voting population on the Democratic side. They tend to vote more for the traditional candidate, and Hillary is that more traditional candidate.”

Taeku Lee, Berkeley political scientist, was also cited in another article to have also explained, “Many people who just came to this country or who feel unsettled are looking to have their anxieties alleviated, looking for a sense of stability.”

80-20Weighs In, CNN Cooperates

While attention toAsian Pacific Americans and their concerns has been much sought by 80-20 Initiative–a bloc-voting organization with a sizable number of paying members and which officially endorsed Clinton for the California primary–-the way the CNN interview turned out and the assumptions it had drawn were not, however, the kind of attention that they wanted.

They ran a petition signed by over two thousand individuals expressing their disappointment. They also persuaded CNN to accommodate a two-minute clip that presented a more balanced and instructive view of Asian Americans which was broadcast February 15 in the series “Race and Gender.” [Google: “Petition: C ’s Pejorative Portrayal of the Asian- American Vote.”]

In their membership solicitation drive, the PAC organization founded six years ago by former Delaware Lt. Gov. S.B. Woo, wrote:

“Recent events in national politics have made it painfully clear that we, Asian Pacific Americans (APAs) often become political footballs kicked with impunity by diverse political interests. The situation plainly calls for the presence of a strong visible political organization to advocate our interests and voice our concerns with the power to punish and reward politicians. The 80-20 PAC is a call to APAs to exert their political muscle. It is time to turn it into a permanent political organization.”

APAs Mobilize Their Community

But even before — if ever —Asian Pacific Americans, which constitute 5 percent of the country’s total population, could form a permanent political organization, APAs have already increased their political participation at impressive speed, even if mainstream media have not yet fully noticed.

There are many examples. Notable among them are: the 10-state drive ofAPIAVote to train volunteers for programs to increaseAPAvoters’ registration and election participation; theAALDEF (AsianAmerican Legal Defense and Education Fund) language- assistance project covering 100 poll sites in fourmost-needy states; and the groups of APA individual volunteers who on their own or their organizations’ accord, have proliferated the country’s campaign spots during the primaries.

They have also gained notice at the central stage, such as when Hillary, in her later stump speech, mentioned not only Asian Pacific Americans and their involvement but in particular Naomi Tacuyan, an energetic FilipinoAmerican Democratic campaigner.

A Mother’s Dilemma, Her Son’s Thrill

Perhaps the one APA who not only got onstage but also stole the show, albeit for a fewminutes of nationally televised fame,was a nine-year old youngster.

At the campaign for the February 12 primaries of Virginia,Maryland and the District of Columbia, Obama, campaigning in Alexandria on February 10, was closing his speech by asking questions from the audience, when Sonia Aranza, a Filipino American native of Hawaii, asked him for help in her dilemma between her husband, Danny, a former appointee in the Clinton administration who was “now campaigning in [the District’s] Chinatown for Hillary” and her nine-year old son, Aaron, whom she drove to the Obama rally because “he’s crazy about you!”

Whereupon Obama got Aaron on the stage beside him while digital cameras clicked, saying, “Come here, let’s help your mama…and send this picture to your father.”

Asked if that resolved her dilemma, Sonia, who is a communications specialist, told Asian Fortune, “No, I think I am still inclined to vote for Hillary.”

The Obama fever seems to have infected other youngAPAs, just as many others in the country’s under-40 population have shown, according to surveys and actual primary voting patterns.

Two Virginia residents Eric Byler, son of a Chinesemother and a Caucasian father, and Annabel Park, of Korean ancestry, who both produced, among other works, an attentiongrabbing documentary on the illegal immigrants issue in Virginia’s Prince William County, produced a YouTube-disseminated bandwagon for Obama.

Campaigning for the January 19 caucus in Nevada—a state that has a trove of APA voters and a hefty presence of organized labor, a Hillary safety net – Byler, in a longdistance call, told Asian Fortune: “It’s amazing, Annabel and I thought we would just be a handful of out-of-town volunteers, but our informal invitation turned out more than 40 who came from everywhere, from NewYork to California! We did not have a fixed idea who to rally for and why, but after caucusing among ourselves, we were unanimous about rallying for Obama.”

Annabel went through a hard choice, telling Asian Fortune by phone, “I really admire Hillary and wanted to support her, but I’mconvinced that BarackObama is the kind of leader that we want for our times, now.”

Their “Asians for Barack Obama” on line group, along with Latino supporters, has lately shifted its activities to language-assistance phone banking, “as cultural and language barriers in the Asian American and Latino communities are forcing many first generation immigrants to fall back on factors like name recognition.”

If the motley groups of APA supporters that seemed to have spontaneously sprouted for Obama was impressive, so were the longplanned political campaign groups from the diverse APA community for Hillary.

They are too many to mention, but most notable among themis the nationwide “Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders for Hillary” chaired by California Rep. Doris Matsui, the labor unions’campaign support activities, and individual members of community organizations who helped in primary-related workshops, phone banking, and other strategies to encourage a heavier APA electoral participation.

Rozita Lee, carefully putting aside her title as regional chair of the National Association of Filipino American Associations, helped in nonpartisan workshops to prepareAPAs and other residents for the Nevada primary in Las Vegas. “It is such a satisfying experience, knocking on doors, urging local residents to go out and vote,” she told Asian Fortune.

Loida Nicolas Lewis, co-chair of the New York Filipino American chapter of the APAorganization forHillary, also called from the Philippines, where she was on a business engagement, and gave this correspondent an hour-long argument for why Hillary is good not only forAPAs but also for theU.S. and the world.

APA Republicans

Not to be outdone by the Democrats, some APA Republicans were also actively engaged right at the start of the primary campaigns.

Emma Aquino Nemecek, a Filipino American businesswoman in Mt.Vernon, Iowa who honed her political skills when she ran as District 29 state representative for the Iowa Legislature and almost won with 40 per cent of the vote, had vigorously campaigned for Republican candidateMike Huckabee.

“But I’m looking far ahead…by becoming a campaign staff forMcCain in California because I think hewill eventually be theGOP nominee,” she told thiswriter by phonewhile stomping in the Iowa caucus that Huckabee won. She described herself as a conservative, loyal Republican, and is pro-life “because of my Filipino Catholic values.”

Earlier, there was also much enthusiasm among Virginia RepublicanAPAs forMitt Romney, former Massachusetts governor of Olympic Games fame and vaunted business prowess.

Vellie Dietrich Hall, who won one third of the winning vote in her first try for VA’s Mason District Supervisor in last year’s election, told Asian Fortune, “He has proven how to run a state efficiently without raising taxes, has strong family values, and has fantastic business acumen that could create more jobs and rev up the economy…He’s the best for our country right now.”

After Romney’s $20 million campaign failed to get him to the top of the six-pack GOP race, consequently quit and endorsed McCain, Maurese Oteyza Owens of Falls Church, VA decided to shrug off her disappointment and agreed to supportMcCain.

It does not, however, seem to be as simple as that in Democratic ranks at this writing.With a continuing neck-and-neck race, Clinton and Obama continue to skirmish with each other, although at this writing, Obama has the lead having won 10 states, with a total of 1,319 delegates over Hillary’s 1,250. It takes 2,025 to clinch the Democratic nomination.

An instructive but crushing loss for the former first lady was Obama’s win in Wisconsin, where he got 53 per cent of thewhite votes to Hillary’s 41 per cent, and 48 per cent over her 41 per cent for the women’s vote, known to be a gender- generated given for Hillary, who could make history by being the country’s first elected woman President.