Let’s see, he was born and raised in Baton Rouge, has earned numerous honors and awards, turned LA’s Medicaid deficit into a 3-yr surplus…

But you know, let’s ignore his accomplishments and platform altogether and judge him by the ethnicity of his parents. Let’s also ignore the platform of his rival and endorse her just because she might sell out to Pakistani interests.

Still, an interesting breakdown would be to compare the votes of naturalized Indians and Pakistanis to American-born citizens of Indian and Pakistani immigrants. As you said, Indian-Americans in LA traditionally vote D.

Gokul, I have a feeling that second-generation immigrants from India might tend to vote slightly more conservative than the naturalized immigrant Indians. I agree it will be interesting to see if the hunch bears out in real numbers.

It is really petty and spiteful of the Pakistani-immigrants to somehow imagine that Jindal will hurt their ex-country as governor of Louisiana - like Niraj said in his related post, since when did governors start making foreign policy?

What I’m interested in is how such behavior by certain Pakistani-American groups affect the whole notion of “South Asian.” It’s certainly a handy term to describe a region of origion, and there are certainly some cultural traits that transcend the boundaries. But, there is clearly no “South Asian” political viewpoint. If Jindal were running for Senate, their opposition would be understandable.

KXB, you raise some pretty interesting points - I think most of the people who call themselves “South Asian” are usually Indian - you find very Pakistanis doing that…

Pakis are more afraid that someone of the intellectual caliber like Jindal can rise to the national stage.

That is what is really scaring the Pakis. As a Governor of Louisiana, he cant do much. But someone as smart and young as Jindal is definately going to the national stage and may be working where he can really do damage to the Paki interests

Back home politics and attitudes do stay for a generation or two. I find it strange but familiar to see a Pakistani-American association endorse Jindal’s opponent because he’s Indian-American. But why then should other Indian-Americans vote for him? If their politics are Democratic, they should have voted for Blanco. I hope you are not suggesting that they should vote for him because he’s of Indian origin.

Similarly, I thought McKinney was voted out because she was a crank and useless as a representative, but now I find out it was because she was anti-India. Man, this old country politics never dies, does it?

Zack, Jindal never made a big deal about his Indian roots - it is the Pakistani-Americans who seem to be really hung up on that. I am not suggesting anything except that if one group starts on the country-politics, there is nothing wrong with another group picking up the challenge and defeating the opposition. It isn’t like the Pakistani-Americans are voting Blanco for her Democrat values.

As for Cynthia McKinney, she was the one again who injected India into the equation by shooting her mouth off, not the Indian-Americans. I don’t see anything wrong with defending something you like when someone else is mouthing off.

no

why is it a problem to vote against someone you feel will not accurately represent you? The pakistanis feel the indian canidate will not look out for their interests, even go against them, and therefore they are voting for the other guy