4.27.2009

barack obama, the first asian american president?

All right! So President Barack Obama has been in office for 100 days. How has he done? He might have made history as the first African American president, but based on what he's accomplished so far, this AFP article suggests he might actually be America's most important Asian American leader yet: Obama the first Asian-American president?

Obama appointed a record three Asian American cabinet members -- Energy Secretary Steven Chu, Veteran Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki and Commerce Secretary Gary Locke -- and has quickly focused his attention on Asia, inviting Japan's prime minister as his first guest, and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton going to Asia for her first trip.

There's also, of course, the President's personal connection with Asia, having spent part of his childhood in Jakarta. Then there's his sister Maya Soetoro-Ng, who is partly of Indonesian descent, and her husband Konrad Ng, who is Chinese American (by way of Canada).

But hey, we knew all this. And we've been making these claims for the better part of a year: barack obama, the first asian american president? Jeff Yang laid it all out in his "Asian Pop" column back in July 2008: Could Obama be the first Asian American president? It's just cool to see, only a hundred days later, things are already looking pretty good.

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