After Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama made a speech early last month in front of a group of South Asians, he reiterated how different he was from past candidates. The democratic nominee also stated he was a “desi,” an informal term meaning “South Asian.” Although, his comments and public image have captured the interest of many minorities – it didn’t do much for AliBabaIncorporated of Hong Kong and blogger for YellowWorld.org.

“The outreach is nice, but NO, having an immigrant father, some Asian friends, and a few years in an Indonesian school and a few more in Hawaii doesn't make you Asian, and it certainly doesn't make you Indian.”

But on the flip side, not only does Obama appeal to Christina, an Asian-American teenager - his speech at the Democratic Convention brought her to tears. Christina, who is still too young to vote, stated that Obama knows what issues are most important and what needs change in her blog, The Obsessions of Two Asian Teenage Best Friends.

“I know that being an American, we don't always expect the government to be there. We like to keep a distance from our government but at this time, this period, we need our government desperately. I see the economy, homes, families, and people crumbling before me. I know of the problems that exist in this country and Obama does too and he has pinpointed and addressed every one of them.”

While the Asian teenager is in support of Obama, Asian American author Irwin Tang has written a book titled Gook: John McCain’s Racism and Why it Matters. Paul Schmelzer, managing editor for the Minnesota Independent and blogger Eyeteeth: A journal of incisive ideas, writes about Tang’s book.

“‘I hate the gooks,’ McCain said in 2000. ‘I will hate them as long as I live.’ A war veteran who was tortured by Vietcong captors, McCain later apologized for the comment, but as Tang argues in his new book, it still matters. The Texas native says that “gook” is “both a term of war and a term of racism, and John McCain is very active in both areas.” The word goo-goo, he explains, was used to describe Filipinos when U.S. troops occupied the country, and it morphed into “gook” when the U.S. occupied Haiti. In Vietnam, as in other conflicts, it was used to de-humanize the enemy.
The author of Gook: John McCain's Racism and Why It Matters, Tang concludes: ‘If he had used the n-word rather than the g-word — ‘gook' — we would've disqualified John McCain for the presidency immediately.’”

AngryABCGirl, another blogger of YellowWorld.org, further analyzes McCain’s comment. The Chinese American writes that his comment questions his overall character.

“The fact that someone running for public office—the President of the United States, no less—would unabashedly use this term, and then repeatedly refuse to apologize for it (he eventually did), is reasons enough for me to question his character. We as Asian Americans are no strangers to racial epithets being thrown our way, whether they're meant as “jokes” or meant to cause harm. Here, “gook” was clearly being used as expression of resentment. The fact that McCain was a P.O.W. does not excuse him from harboring these feelings. Why is this even under debate?”

Despite McCain’s comments and the ranging views of Obama, both candidates still have a large group of Asian supporters – whether the majority is swinging left or right will soon be determined.

For most people, the basic form of action would be to Vote.
It is not only a privilege, but a civic duty for those who can vote to do so.

Ironically, for as politically earnest I have become, I have never voted. Ever. I have always moved outside of a place when I have become eligible to vote. I left Hong Kong at 14, and then I left Canada at 18. Some people asked why I don't do overseas voting for Canada, but there is something wrong about voting when I am a registered non-resident of a country. Seems dishonest in a way. I know nothing about Canadian politics, so even if I am eligible to vote, I don't feel invested enough to participate in its politics. It is not a cop out, I just do not believe in seagull style voting… fly in, poop, and fly out.

I am conflicted in how I feel about American politics. On one hand, I understand the general apathy that so permeates my peers; it is easy to feel like you have no say in this polarized environment, especially if you live in San Francisco which is about as far to one extreme as you can get. Whether you vote or not in SF, it will be a blue state; and yet in a way it doesn't even matter, since Californian politics is not what would tip the balance on the national stage, at least not in the Presidential race. Something is very broken with American politics. That much I think everybody on both sides of the aisle can agree with.

On the other hand, it is in America that I learned how to care about politics, and why it really does matter. Despite the pitfalls of this democracy, this is the place where I have had the most intelligent discussions about politics of all kinds, with people who genuinely care and know what they're talking about. Despite all the retarded talking points and mumbling pundits, this chaotic political system still fosters the kind of energy that I have not felt when I was in Hong Kong or Canada. In particular, I can sense a bubbling up of enthusiasm for global social justice issues from the younger generation; a brand of politics that aspires to go beyond all the broken mechanisms in the American system.

Today, I feel hopeful.
If I could vote in America today, I would vote for Obama. I am most aligned with his positions on almost every issue (in fact, one of those web political compass pegged me squarely ON Obama's face in those tests). I would leave it to the articulate Fareed Zakaria to explain my more personal reason for wanting Obama to be in office:

The Power of Personality - by Fareed Zakaria, for Newsweek.

Some excerpts:

“Throughout the campaign, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton have been squabbling over who has the better qualifications to lead the world's only superpower.”
…
“Obama's argument is about more than identity. He was intelligent and prescient about the costs of the Iraq War. But he says that his judgment was formed by his experience as a boy with a Kenyan father—and later an Indonesian stepfather—who spent four years growing up in Indonesia, and who lived in the multicultural swirl of Hawaii.”
…
“But when I think about what is truly distinctive about the way I look at the world, about the advantage that I may have over others in understanding foreign affairs, it is that I know what it means not to be an American. I know intimately the attraction, the repulsion, the hopes, the disappointments that the other 95 percent of humanity feels when thinking about this country. I know it because for a good part of my life, I wasn't an American. I was the outsider, growing up 8,000 miles away from the centers of power, being shaped by forces over which my country had no control.”