"Things That Make You Go Hmmm..."

I first said it in a blog post on March 7th about South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley being the 2012 GOP's version of the 2004 Barack Obama. Now a Politico article states something about her ambitions:

"One state party operative without any 2012 allegiances who is close to Haley ... noted that she’s “extremely ambitious” and “angling for something bigger.”"

Just one of those things that make you go hmmm...

Nikki Haley is born on January 20th? Hmm...

The New York Times Magazine did an interesting interview with South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley. Among some of the topics discussed are her disqualification as a 5-year old from a local pageant because she could not be classified as either 'White' or 'Black' to fit into the two categories of the pageant as well as her conversion to Christianity from Sikhism.

Washington Post columnist Kathleen Parker first floated the idea a few years ago of Haley being part of a national ticket. With the dearth of viable candidates on the Republican Side in 2012, the GOP is starting to look like the 2004 Democratic Party, who essentially chose the least objectionable establishment candidate that ended up being overshadowed by a new upstart at the convention (some guy named 'Obama' or something like that.)

Could Nikki Haley be the 2012 GOP version of the 2004 Barack Obama? After reading the interview, I have a feeling she's hoping for a very happy 45th birthday for the presidential inauguration in 2017.

Indian-Americans on the 2010 American Political Scene

By now, even the most apolitical person has seen the Indian-American Governor of Louisiana, Bobby Jindal. And many people have also heard the name of Nikki Haley, the Republican candidate for Governor of South Carolina, who jumped from last to first in the Republican field after an endorsement from a certain former Governor of Alaska. In a recent opinion piece in The Daily Beast, Tunku Varadarajan writes that Jindal and Haley are "exploding racial attitudes-and why the Dems don't get it."

I guess when Varadarajan wasn't paying attention, the Boston Globe and Christian Science Monitor were both paying attention. The Boston Globe ran this article titled Record number of Indian-Americans seeking office, while the Christian Science Monitor ran The rise of the Indian-American candidate, as Nikki Haley and others run. Contradicting Varadarajan's claim of how the Democrats "don't get it", the articles point out that there are actually SIX Democratic candidates for the United States House of Representatives and an organizations like the Indian American Leadership Initiative and US India Political Action Committee are actively promoting Indian-Americans on the political scene.

The Indian-Americans running for Congress are:
Dr. Manan Trivedi (PA - 6th District)
Reshma Saujani (NY - 14th)
Raj Goyle (KS -4th)
Dr. Ami Bera (CA - 3rd)
Ravi Sangisetty (LA - 3rd)
Surya Yalamanchili (OH - 2nd)

Also, one of the rising stars in the Democratic Party, Kamala Harris, is considered the favorite to win as California's Attorney General. Harris is the daughter of a Black father and Indian mother and has often been spoken of as a future presidential candidate in Democratic circles.

So even though the two most prominent Indian-American politicians are Republicans, they are clearly outnumbered by the Democrats this year. And regardless of your political affiliation, it is important to see Americans of all shapes and stripes making their own impact on our great American democratic experiment that has existed for 234 years and counting!