Forty-one percent of Asian Americans support Barack Obama compared to just 24 percent who support John McCain, according to a comprehensive groundbreaking  national survey released today in Washington.

But the most significant revelation is how Asian Americans are more undecided as a group compared to the national population. Thirty-four percent of Asian Americans say they have yet to make a choice, compared to 8 percent in the general population who say they are undecided.

That indicates APA voters have some clout in these remaining weeks of the campaign.

Finally a poll where we show up. National studies rarely show us at all. Not a large enough sample. Conclusion: We must not care or don’t have an opinion.

But this study shows that Asians can be included if poll originators really cared.  This one did, and it’s scientific. No more guessing needed. No more odd extrapolations.

These numbers represent a break-through. We can quantify our political interest and involvement. If the parties are interested, we’re interested.  The data is here.

http://www.naasurvey.com/

If you haven’t read Nicholas Kristoff’s column today, “Racism without Racists,” you should. And then ask yourself if you’re a racist. Continue reading…

Wells Fargo is buying Wachovia.

What did you expect? In this Darwinian world, the strong survive, the weak seek bailouts.

In this case, the weak look so appetizing to a bigger fish looking to gobble up something tasty.  Just makes sense. Citibank, which had made an earlier offer to buy Wachovia, was just a poser anyway, with almost as much riskiness in its portfolio as the banks that failed. Wells is a far better merger for everyone. It’s one of the bigs and assures stability, which after all is what’s attainable in the short term. A turn around, something more positive is down the road. All we want to do now is stop the bleeding.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/04/business/04bank.html?hp=&pagewanted=print

But the deal is instructive for the House which is expected to vote on the bailout today. Any package has to have something more real to ease the pain for consumer/taxpayers, something that gives hope to those who are upside down on stupid mortgages sold to them by greedy lenders.

Save the bailout bucks for the real people who are hurting. I don’t care if CEO X is fearful of not being able to pay his Netjets bill. There are real people in crisis who don’t get enough help from any current bailout on the table. Raising FDIC protection  is just window dressing.  Penalize, don’t bailout the greedy. Help the consumers who were victims in all this.

As the Wells deal shows, capitalism will take care of itself with merger and acquisitions.  That leaves society to take care of the new poor, the one time middle class that each day sinks further in this abysmal economy. That’s where the real societal values of trust and leadership come into play.

It will take more than a quickie $800 billion or so package to save us all. Let’s take the time to do it right. Remember it was those damn no-doc loans that got us in this mess in the first place.

I don’t know what I was expecting with the veep debate. But I didn’t think it would be so painful to watch Palin try to sound intelligent. She really does make George Bush look like a mental giant.  I want to take her seriously but she only has one move. When the going gets tough she goes cute, folksy, populist.  And then she says something embarrassing. Her answer on the bailout was just unintelligible.  It just won’t play in the Oval Office. Do you want to put her a heartbeat away from the presidency?

I’ve admired Nancy Pelosi over the years. Yesterday, her speech from the house floor haranguing George Bush for blowing the huge surplus inherited from the Clinton-Democrats was 100 percent right and totally amok.

But it was also the wrong speech at the wrong time. In crisis, we need a little less obvious harangue, and a little more kumbaya. Continue reading…

Here’s why I’m still suspicious of any bail out deal. It’s not about the consumer/taxpayer.

We just foot the bill. The beneficiaries are the capitalists, many of whom look on the bailout as a “sweetener” for the deals they want to make as soon as the bailout gets done. Continue reading…

Sen. Richard Burr (R-North Carolina) is the key member who appears to be holding up a move to a conference committee to decide the fate of the Fil Vets of WWII.  Burr should be urged to support further negotiations of both S.1315 and the house lump sum proposal . In conference, Sen. Akaka and Sen.Inouye, along with Burr and other key House and Senate members can hammer out the best solution for the vets. For my money, it’s S.1315. But to get anything finalized this Congress,  Burr’s help will be needed to force a conference meeting this week.

If this was the debate John McCain had to  win, it didn’t work out that way. McCain was good in this first debate.  But so was Obama. A tie advantages Obama, who has to convince my in-laws in Ohio that his middle name is irrelevant and he doesn’t wear a turban. Continue reading…

There’s still hope. The financial bailout talks has put Congress on overtime. That means more time for advocates of the Filipino Veterans of WWII to rally support for a conference committee that could forge a  law that will finally make the vets whole. Continue reading…

It’s good to see the bailout talks take longer than the average time it took mortgage brokers to do a non-doc loan.  That’s what got us into this mess in the first place, remember? Continue reading…