Barone says, “Nationally, Asian voters went 62%-35% for Barack Obama...” I’m surprised. I thought they had better sense.
Then there are the Chinese-Americans, and it depends on whether you are dealing with a CBA or an ABC how they usually come down, and that'll differ by where they live.
Filipinos have been drifting to the Republicans for many years but aren't quite all there (See Michelle Malkin ~ she can probably write books about the problem), and then there are the Vietnamese ~ a mixed bag.
I think by now most Asian-Americans have figured out that Obama is doing such a lousy job in such a non-thinking way that it will be a gazillion years before any of them get a shot at the Presidency.
Asian immigrants, at least in New York and New Jersey, have been given the line over the last 30 years that the Republicans were racist white Christian fundamentalists who wanted to prevent upstart immigrants from prospering (yes, the Dems have literally said this on several occasions). Even though East Asians are (per Pew) the least religiously observant racial group in America, many are also entrepreneurs, which is why the emphasis on pocketbook issues helped McDonnell in NoVa among this demographic.
With the Chinese I am not surprise. The Lee Wen Ho spy scandal during the Clinton admin where the GOP went after a Chinese American scientist was the Dryfus Affair for the Chinese Americans. Chinese Americans tend to be more socially conservative and vote GOP, but after the hardline anti Communist China theme of the spy scandal, the voting habits shifted. Personally I think Lee was guilty (missing classified tapes were found in his home), but the GOP head of the nuclear lab went public with the allegations too early, thus the FBI probe was bungled. Clinton that time was having illegal campaign contribution problems involving the Chinese, so he also probably ran interference. Net result is we probably do not know if Lee was a spy or not, but his Dem operatives in the Chinese community was able to frame the issue as another conservative GOP witch hunt motivated by racist feelings and jealousy of a rising Asian power. Unfortunately the local spin was successful because ask most Chinese Americans what they think of the Lee spy allegations, and they probably will say it is a GOP racially motivated witch hunt.
“Barone says, “Nationally, Asian voters went 62%-35% for Barack Obama...” I’m surprised. I thought they had better sense.”
Nothing personal intended, but if you had any clue as to the outreach efforts of the Democrats when it comes to Asians, this would make perfect sense. To Republican leaders, Asians, Blacks, Hispanics, they’re all the same...and reaching them is hopeless. The Democrats OWN their media, advertise in their languages, and control the rest of their contact with mainstream America. They spend ALL of their time talking about immigration, particularly family unification (while conveniently ignoring Gay Marriage, crime and all of their other favorite past-times), whereas Republicans typically cannot distinguish between a border-crossing Mexican and a well educated, very productive Asian.
Obviously it’s not true that Asians are just another failed minority in the US - starting with their divorce rates being something like 10% (i.e., they could teach the Republicans a whole bunch about family values) - and (generally) much higher incomes and education levels. Perhaps if the Republican leaders noted that there are MILLIONS of Asians (I’ll admit, not as many as their are blacks or Hispanics, but millions of people, many of them with a TON of money)...they’d realize that it might be worth spending a few minutes on them.
But then again, I’m probably dreaming.
When you pull out the numbers for Hawaii and focus on the mainland, the picture looks a little bit brighter.