At his high school graduation, Barack Obama hugs his half sister, Maya Soetoro-Ng, who is the daughter of his Indonesian step-father, Lolo Soetoro. Photo courtesy of Maya Soetoro-Ng

When the votes are counted, race still does matter.

In the recent campaigns leading up to the Super Tuesday primaries, Sen. Barack Obama's candidacy transcended lines of race, ethnicity, socio-economic status, political affiliation, gender and age.

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's campaign, however, was marred and tainted by race baiting remarks concerning African-Americans. Those remarks offended many Americans.

Sen. Clinton's campaign continues to be plagued by tactics which attack the other candidate, rather than focus on the American people's demand for change. At the debate held at the University of Texas, for example, Sen. Clinton attacked Sen. Obama by using the phrase, "Change you can Xerox." One has to wonder whether this phrase was penned by the candidate, the candidate's spouse or a speechwriter?
Furthermore, while attacking Sen. Obama, Sen. Clinton said to him, "Barack, when you ..." In a televised debate format in front of the American people, is this manner of addressing the senator from Illinois appropriate, much less statesmanlike?
One has to wonder whether Sen. Clinton's attitude and words toward Sen. Obama simply reflect a desperate tone as the large Texas and Ohio primaries are approaching, or perhaps indicate an inability or intolerance of Sen. Obama running for president and the momentum bringing him closer to becoming the Democratric nominee.

One also has to question whether Sen. Clinton's campaign tactics leading up to the South Carolina primary reflected an "entitlement" mentality, one in which Sen. Clinton and former President Bill Clinton thought that African-Americans were somehow "beholden" to them and therefore "owed" them their votes. President Clinton was a great president, statesman and leader; the history books will indicate that. But for the Clintons or Sen. Clinton's campaign to take the African-American voters' votes for granted and be presumptuous about how African-Americans "should" vote was a mistake, and the primary results proved that.

Former Congressman Norman Mineta, highly respected for his integrity and non-partisanship and the first Asian American to serve as a cabinet secretary - he was Commerce Secretary for Clinton and Transportation Secretary for Bush until he resigned - this month endorsed Sen. Obama for president. Mineta stated, "My parents came to this country because they knew that it was a place where individuals could pursue their own dreams and chart their own future. And, like Barack Obama, I grew up in a home where we were taught that we have an obligation to leave the world a better place for our children and our grandchildren and for the eternity of future generations."

Transcending lines of race and gender is a good thing and marks a new era in American politics, and Sen. Obama's candidacy demonstrates this. For the media and political pundits to ignore Asian Americans, however, is unfortunate. Are Asian Americans in 2008 still deemed "invisible"?

The American people respect Sen. Obama. That's why we refer to him or address him as "Senator Obama." After that, we'll address him as "President Obama."

Anh Le can be reached at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

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