Seventy-seven percent of Asian Americans voted for Obama in 2012, according to new findings released by the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund on Thursday. AALDEF conducted a multilingual exit poll on Election Day in 14 states. But in the biggest surprise, a whopping 96 percent of Bangladeshi voters backed Obama, according to AALDEF. That number is higher even than the 93 percent of black voters who voted for Obama in this election. Ninety-one percent of Pakistani voters voted for Obama, as did 84 percent of Asian Indian voters, 81 percent of Chinese, 78 percent of Korean and 65 percent of Filipino voters.
But Obama didn’t get so much love from all Asian groups. More than half of Vietnamese voters—54 percent—backed Republican candidate Mitt Romney, still less than the nearly 60 percent of white voters who voted for Romney. But the Vietnamese community, not unlike Cuban-Americans in the Latino community, tend to vote more conservatively than other Asian Americans.
Asian-American Voters Really, Really Loved Barack Obama in Election 2012 [Colorlines]
Obama Moving on Immigration Reform Now
By TED HESSON
President Obama will begin pushes for immigration reform and gun control this month, according to The Huffington Post. Legislative aides told HuffPo that a bipartisan bill could take several months to develop and could possibly come to a vote by June.
Click here to read about 6 things that Obama can do to make immigration reform a reality.
(Image: Charles Dharapak/AP Photo)
According to the link above, President Obama needs to be a leader, keep a clear message, and move quickly.
President Obama has repeatedly been none of those things on many issues (except for deportations where he is the undisputed king) so in other words, immigration reform is going to be a disaster.
Not surprised. To quote Jorge Ramos “Latinos don’t forget that it was you, the Republicans, who approved Arizona’s anti-immigrant law SB 1070. Other similar laws in Alabama and Georgia, among other states, were also approved by you”.
Todos in my familia voted for President Obama, they’re all not even that liberal. I’m proud of them and they’re apparently all cheering loudly back home.
(via tortasahogadas)
He can keep the tacos, but no pupusas.
(via mexicanfoodporn)
If you caught the season premiere of Saturday Night Live (hello, new Obama!), you may have noticed their Weekend Update treatment of the presidential campaigns’ courting of Latin@ voters.
The larger story, of course, can be seen in the poll numbers: Obama currently leads the coveted demographic 66% to 29%, reminiscent of his 67% to 31% lead with Hispanic voters over John McCain in 2008.
Romney is fighting back by focusing on economic issues as Obama’s failure of this audience’s communities, as the Latin@ unemployment rate continues to hover a couple percentage points higher than the national average. In that theme, the “Romney campaign has run Spanish-language television ads targeting Hispanics, including one called ‘No podemos mas’ — translated to ‘We no longer can’ — that contrasts with Obama’s 2008 campaign slogan, ‘Yes, we can.’”
It’s immigration issues where matters get a little stickier. As the LA Times commented:
Clearly, Latinos don’t cast their votes based solely on whether a candidate supports comprehensive immigration reform or stricter enforcement. The economy, education, public safety are the top issues, just as they are for all voters. But Latinos don’t appreciate candidates who demonize immigrants either.
And while Romney himself may usually be a little too silver-tongued to outright demonize immigrants, he does campaign with people who do — notably Rep. Steve King of Iowa, who said that an electric fence should be built along the southern border to keep immigrants out because “we do this with livestock all the time.”
On that cheery note, for more background on this topic, read On the Issues’ report on Romney’s immigration policy here and view their report on Obama on this issue here.
— Bonnie
P.S. What did you think of SNL’s coverage? And do you think Romney will be able to successfully court the Latin@ vote?
One day later and post-Romney’s quip about being Mexican, the answer is no unless he changes his platform. I mean there’s plenty to criticize about President Obama’s TERRIBLE record with Latin@ voters. By the way, is there a group of individuals that Mitt Romney has not insulted?
The answer is clearly NO. By the way, I refuse to link to this piece even if it doesn’t make the claim that he is the first Latin@ president.
As long as I’m alive, I will work towards making sure that the deportations that occurred under his presidency become a prominent part of his legacy.
Obama: ‘Help Us Destroy Jesus And Start A New Age Of Liberal Darkness’
The forced sodomy part was maybe unnecessary but the “Thank you, may Satan reward you all, and may God tremble in fear at the United States of America!” really speaks to me as a voter.
Rush Limbaugh on Barack Obama (via mediamattersforamerica)
I know that the rule is to ignore Rush Limbaugh but what the hell is wrong with him?
(via mediamattersforamerica)
