80-20 initiative endorses obama for president

On Saturday, the largest Asian American political action committee, the 80-20 Initiative, formally endorsed Sen. Obama for president: Largest Asian-American PAC Endorses Obama.

They decided on the endorsement after a day-long convention and discussion among 33 delegates of various ethnicities, ages and party affiliations. The delegates represent a national, nonpartisan organization of 700,000 supporters.

Whoop-dee-doo.

On the one hand, I guess it's good to see 80-20 finally come around. They had sent out questionnaires early in the primary season to all presidential candidates, asking for their written commitment to various equal opportunities for Asian Americans. At one point, 80-20 issued a call to defeat Obama, citing his initial refusal to respond to the questionnaire.

According to Asian Americans for Obama, Senator Obama never refused to respond to the questionnaire. However, his campaign was concerned with the wording of the some of the questions, and asked 80-20 to allow some modification. This was a courtesy that was extended to other campaigns, but for whatever reason, 80-20 refused to work with Obama and reacted with negative attacks.

Earlier this year, 80-20 officially endorsed Clinton for president... but we all know how that worked out. So now they're endorsing Obama. But get this—80-20's press release included a caveat at the very end, saying that if Senator McCain chose Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal as his running mate, the organization would "view it very helpful in winning equal opportunity for Asian-Americans. In that event, this convention may reconvene" to reconsider its endorsement.

What the hell? What kind of half-assed endorsement is this? How about standing for something? To me, this caveat about Jindal completely undermines their endorsement's significance. Especially considering that McCain never even responded to 80-20's precious questionnaire. And yet they would re-consider all that with the magical VP choice of Jindal. I'm not even saying this as an Obama supporter, but as someone trying to make sense of what this looks like.

I've never thought much of 80-20... but this is weak.