With a massive 53 per cent in favour of Obama, Indian Americans are higher than the Asian American average of 41 per cent? And your survey says only 14 per cent of the community favours McCain, with 33 per cent undecided.
That's right. As far as Indian Americans are concerned, Obama has very strong support of over 50 percent, and that would be even stronger now since the number of 'undecided' has gone down. But it's difficult to say exactly how much for any particular ethnic group. You can say it overall. If I had to estimate it, Obama's numbers in terms of Indian Americans would now be easily over 60 percent.
Where Indian Americans are concerned, what in your view is the most significant finding in the survey?
The major finding was that they have the strongest identification with the Democratic Party among all Asians groups. That is important to note, in that it translates into one of the strongest support bases among Asian American groups for Barack Obama.
The survey showed 39 percent of Indian Americans being Democrat, 21 percent Independent and only 7 percent Republican. When it comes to Obama however, the numbers are higher than the percentage of registered Democrats. How do you explain this?
A lot of Independents and non-partisans are now for Obama. The reasons are varied. Even if they don't identify with the Democratic Party, they prefer Democrats on the economy -- and the economy is the number one issue for everyone, Indians as well as non-Indians, just now. The other point is that the Democratic advantage also helps.
What do you mean?
During the administration of President Bill Clinton, a lot of Indians either naturalized or came to the country, and a lot of them have a very favourable impression of the Democratic Party based on their experience of the Clinton administration.
After 9/11, because of the rise in discrimination against Indians, more and more people started shifting to the Democratic Party. Another major development was that in 2006, in states like Virginia, when then Senator George Allen used a derogatory terms against an Indian -- you know, the 'macaca' remark -- a lot of Indian Republicans started shifting their allegiances.
More generally, it's true that when you have a group that is reminded of their racial minority status, it generally helps the Democratic Party. You see the same thing with Latinos. Bush got a lot of Latino votes in 2004, but with all the legislation that was being considered in 2006, the Republican Party was seen as an anti-immigrant party and a lot of Latinos are now voting for Obama over McCain.
Image: US Republican presidential candidate John McCain at a midnight campaign rally in Coral Gables, Florida in the early hours of Monday.
Photograph: Robyn Beck/AFP/Getty Images
Also read: The face off in town hall
Advertisement
