A Cup of Joe: Obama, McCain need to follow Clinton’s lead to Irvine

By Joe Nguyen, AsiaXpress.com

May 12, 2008

It’s going to be fun on May 17 in Irvine, Calif.

APIA Vote is presenting a presidential town hall. For the first time ever, the APIA communities will be hosting a presidential town hall where the candidates will be discussing issues and policies that are important to us.

(And for all of you who don’t have a plane ticket out there like me, AsiaXpress.com is sponsoring a town hall watch party from 4 to 8 p.m. at Daniels Fund on 101 Monroe St. in Denver.)

A little bird has confirmed to me that Hillary Clinton will be attending.

Unfortunately, Barack Obama and John McCain haven’t agreed to make an appearance.

What the hell?

It’s an open invitation to address issues concerning the second-fastest growing population in the United States. To me, this seems like a no-brainer if you’re trying to win an election.

Plus it’d be lonely if Hillary’s the only one there.

This isn’t helping their cases considering both McCain and Obama skipped out on the Veterans’ Benefits Enhancement Act of 2007 vote, which provides Filipino World War II vets equity in receiving benefits.

Even though the bill easily passed in the Senate, 96-1, the fact that these presidential candidates didn’t even show up to vote makes it appear that Asian-American issues aren’t on their priority. Quite honestly, I’m a surprised that there hasn’t been more of an outrage from our communities about this.

But here’s hoping that these two redeem themselves and show up to the event.

Joe Nguyen is the editor in chief of AsiaXpress.com. Joe can be reached at joe (at) asiaxpress.com.