Pro-Clinton Push Poll in California

So says the LA Times.

Molina Endorses Team Clinton

She kept it under her hat for awhile, but the LA County Supervisor came out for the Clintons today. Does it cancel out the effects of La Opinion’s endorsement of Obama?

Chinese American Election Views

Jun Wang summarizes online chatter:

Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama have stirred a heated debate, as well as generational warfare, in the Chinese-language blogosphere. First generation Chinese Americans have embraced Clinton in huge numbers for her stances on China and other issues, and many youth are backing Obama. Most of the bloggers’ energy, however, is being expended in vitriolic attacks on the candidates they don’t support …But both Clinton and Obama have problematic positions on China, bloggers say. On MITBBS.com, “Googleme,” an Obama supporter, writes, “The Clinton Administration was not friendly to China…Bill Clinton is the only American president in 30 years who allowed top Taiwan governors come to visit the United States. It is an aggressively bold encouragement of Taiwan’s independence from China.” The assumption is that Hillary Clinton would pick up her husband’s China policy.

Other bloggers mock Obama’s “naive inconsistency” – he originally proposed to “stop the import of all toys from China,” which would have been practically impossible. He later called for the United States to ban only toys from China that were made of toxic materials.

Dolores Huerta Explains Her Support for a Clinton Restoration

Dolores Huerta explains her rationale for supporting the Clintons (my attempt at an English translation first):

“Remember the years of the Clinton presidency? Those were the good years…and now we want another Clinton to return.”

‘¿Recuerdan los años de [Bill] Clinton en la presidencia? Esos fueron los años buenos… y ahora queremos que otro Clinton regrese”, señaló la icono de la lucha de los trabajadores del campo en California, Dolores Huerta, ayer durante la inauguración de la casa de campaña de Hillary Clinton en el Este de Los Ángeles...

Clinton in California Calling 350,000 voters a day

La Opinion in LA reports the Clinton campaign’s claim that they are making 350,000 phone calls to Californians each from 4,500 phones in 28 state offices. Some quick math shows that the campaign could call all 3 million of California’s registered Democrats in the 9 days before the primary.

Indian Country a Key Super Tuesday Bloc

It’s probably even less likely than a brokered convention, but should the Democratic race come down to the final two  primaries on June 3, could Indians be the key to the nomination? Afterall, Native Americans are more than 6% of the population in Montana and 8.5% in South Dakota. Ketaki Gokhale explores how the race is playing in Indian Country, particularly on Tsunami Tuesday:

In states like Alaska, where 16 percent of the population is Native Alaskan, New Mexico, where 10.2 percent of the population is Native, and Oklahoma, where is 8.1 percent of the population is Native, the way Indian Country votes, if it votes as a bloc, could influence the Democratic Party pick for a presidential nominee.

Like in other communities, Obama is stirring enthusiasm, but hasn’t closed the deal. In last night’s South Carolina victory sppech, Obama was careful to include the “black and white, Latino and Asian” components of his coalition. It might behoove Obama to add Native Americans to that list.

Barack Obama is big in Indian Country, even though he’s done everything wrong. He hasn’t attended the annual National Congress of American Indians meet, or rolled out a comprehensive Native American agenda, or even addressed the rumors of his own Native heritage—but he has still, somehow, managed to capture the imagination of Indian Country, say Native American commentators and community activists.

On the other hand,

Sundust Martinez, of the San Jose, Calif.-based Native Voice TV, says that Obama needs to meet with more groups and come up with a clear Indian Country agenda. “There’s just nothing out there,” he says. “[Obama] hasn’t really taken a stance on a lot of issues.”…A recent column in Indian Country Today, however, argued that Obama is reaching out to Native Americans, and that he is the only candidate to have a page on his website dedicated to his Native American supporters. The site, First Americans for Obama, includes a post on a bill Obama cosponsored last year that aims to improve the Indian Health Service, a federal program that operates medical clinics and hospitals on Indian reservations.

Hillary, meanwhile, was a visible presence at last year’s National Congress of Indian meeting, and she has support from many tribal leaders– and Bubba good will– in her favor.

Obama campaign co-chair Tom Daschle surely recalls the Pine Ridge’s role in Tim Johnson’s Senate squeeker in 2002:

Denny McAuliffe, a University of Montana journalism professor and the director of Reznet, an online journalism program for Native American college students,…. recalls another close contest—the 2002 congressional face-off between the Democratic incumbent Rep. Tim Johnson and John Thune, in which Johnson won by 524 votes, because of late returns from the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. Over 90 percent of the votes cast there were for the Democrat.

Obama is Missing His “Groundswell”

Kevin Drum:

I lean toward the Hillary approach because I think the Obama approach only works when there’s already a real groundswell of support for significant change (as in the 30s, 60s, and 80s, for example) — and as much as I hate to say it, I just don’t see that at the moment. I know the pundit class talks endlessly about the public’s hunger for change and its disgust with the politics of polarization, but aside from a nearly unanimous desire to get rid of George Bush it seems to me that the basic partisan divisions we’ve had for the past three decades are mostly still there. It’s sort of like negative campaigning, which still works great no matter how often the public says it’s sick of it.

But maybe I’m just blinkered. Maybe there’s a stronger hunger for fundamental change than I’m giving the public credit for.

Would Magic Have Started Mark Landsberger in Game 6?

The Clinton campaign today rolled out a South Carolina radio ad featuring basketball legend (and business impresario) Magic Johnson:

only Hillary is a proven leader… My rookie year, we won our first game on a last second shot. I was so hyped. But the captain of my team said, “take it easy rookie, it’s a long season, it’s a long road to the championship.” He was right. Winning comes from years of hard work and preparation. Whether it’s winning championships or a President who can lead us back to greatness, I’ll always want the most prepared and experienced person leading my team. That’s why I’m asking you to join me in voting for Hillary Clinton for President.

Check out the comments, where 80s era basketball fans recall that Magic was a pretty talented rookie himself who, when his captain was injured, gave one of the most performances in NBA history to clinch the championship.

Turns out the Obama campaign has some hoops fans on rapid response.

Nagourney’s Black/Brown Tension Piece Based on Anecdote

In Tuesday’s New York Times, Adam Nagourney picks up on the Blacks and Latinos don’t get along and that’s bad for Obama meme that I’ve seen elsewhere, and blogged about. Nagourney provides lots of anecdote, but only two pieces of data– both of which run counter to his argument that Latinos won’t vote for African-Americans:

Mr. Obama confronts a history of often uneasy and competitive relations between blacks and Hispanics, particularly as they have jockeyed for influence in cities like Chicago, Los Angeles and New York.

The statement is not invalid– as Antonio Villaraigosa says in the article, “There are tensions among all groups,” and Black/Brown feelings have been hot at times in LA recently, as JDL recently noted. But Nagourney sites solely on quotes from a handful of people to make the case.

We hear from Natasha Carrillo, 20:  “Many Latinos are not ready for a person of color…I don’t think many Latinos will vote for Obama… I helped organize citizenship drives, and those who I’ve talked to support Clinton.” Javier Perez reports that his Grandmother doesn’t like Blacks. Nevada assemblyman, and Clinton backer, Ruben Kihuen says Latinos gravitate towards Hillary because “the Hispanic community is very family oriented, and we respect our mothers.” And Albert M. Camarillo, founding director of Standford’ Center for the Comparative Study of Race and Ethnicity concludes that Latinos “might not go into the direction of the Obama camp,” not based on any data, but rather on his observation that “there have been enormous misunderstandings and conflicts over local resources and political representations between the two group.”

(Nagourney could have cited the support Obama picked up Sunday from state senator, and former labor leader, Gil Cedillo and ex-senator Martha Escuita. Or, from California Senate majority leader Gloria Romero. or, for that matter, the endorsements he received Monday from Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Pasadena; former Rep. Mel Levine; Assemblyman Ted Lieu, D-El Segundo; Los Angeles City Councilman Bernard Parks; West Hollywood Mayor John Duran and Los Angeles County Supervisor Yvonne B. Burke, not to mention from Rep. Zoe Lofgren. )

The only numbers Nagourney cites to support his thesis are the percentage of the Black vote that LA Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa received in his two runs for City Hall: 50% in his successful 2005 run, up from 20% in 2001, according to reports of exit polls. That’s right: Nagourney’s one example of a Latino politician enveloped in Black/Brown strife won half of the Black vote in his last campaign.

Nagourney would have done well to take a look at the piece John Judis wrote last month, Hillary Clinton’s Firewall, in which he cites academic scholarship that shows ingrained racist attitudes among a large number of Latinos.

African American and Latino sociologists have been conducting extensive surveys in Houston, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, and Philadelphia. These surveys have generally found that Latinos display more prejudice toward African Americans than African Americans do toward Latinos or than whites display toward African Americans. In the words of University of Houston sociologist Tatcho Mindiola, Jr. and two associates, “in general African Americans have more positive views of Hispanics than vice versa.”

Judis also cites an early December poll from the Pew Hispanic Center in which Obama’s Latino support was 15%.

Could hostility toward and rivalry with blacks be a factor in Obama’s abysmal support among Latinos? It’s hard to say, but it’s certainly possible. And if it is a factor–and not simply the result of the Obama campaign’s inattention to Latino voters–then Clinton should benefit from this vote in the primaries and caucuses in states like California even if she loses in Iowa, New Hampshire, and South Carolina.

Introducing Robert Johnson

(Via dNa) Jed put Bob Johnson in context.