Minority vote

Although I'm not really into politics, I try to keep abreast of the news (shoot, I should go get an absentee ballot). I just read an interesting AP article on the importance of the minority vote in the Democratic race for president:

Voters in both groups are energized: Blacks by the early successes of Illinois Sen. Barack Obama, Latinos by the intense, sometimes xenophobic debate over immigration. But it's far from clear how those influences will play off each other.
When South Carolina Democrats hold their primary on Jan. 26 -- the state GOP contest is Jan. 19 -- the choices of substantial numbers of black voters will be tallied for the first time in this election.

It's pretty interesting to see how the Latino and black vote may determine which Democratic candidate goes further. But then, what about the Asian vote? Guess we're since we're the smallest minority group, (Latinos at 15%, blacks at 13.4%, and Asians/mixed at 5%) we still have to wait to have influence.

80/20, a nonpartisan group political action committee working to ensure equal opportunity for Asian Americans, was against Obama because of his lack of support for 80/20's questionnaire (on how he would support Asian American equality). I saw this posted on a blog called hsuperpolitical while browsing around (see the entery 1.4.08):

80-20, the group headed up by former Delaware Lt. Gov. S.B. Woo, has come out actively against Sen. Barack Obama, calling for all concerned with the status of Asian Americans to vote for Senators Biden, Clinton, Dodd, Edwards or Gravel in the Democratic Primaries.

Which brings to mind the question: who would you rather vote for, as a minority? How much do you consider race, and how much do you consider the party values and track record of the candidate? Then again, you can never know what candidate will really do until they are in office.

It's also interesting to read that, duh, "the conventional wisdom has been that as the nation's population moves toward a minority majority, its political complexion will become more Democratic. Or, as Grofman puts it, the 'browning of America will result in the bluing.' "

I generally agree with this, but there are caveats. It may be balanced by the religious or more affluent minorities who will vote Republican; for example, the article mentioned many Latinos identifying themselves as white and thus helped George W. Bush win with their Republican votes. And, as the article showed, minorities still lag behind whites in registering to vote. I think now because the country isn't doing well, and because of all these immigration debates, minorities will use their vote this year.