Thwarting a major challenge from charismatic African-American Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton retained her frontrunner position in a tight race for the Democratic Presidential nomination.
Hillary Clinton's win in California was crucial, even though the mammoth 'Super Tuesday' vote threw up a split verdict for the Democrats.
At the latest delegate count, Hillary Clinton had the support of 825 delegates to Barack Obama's 732. A democratic candidate needs a minimum of 2025 delegates in total to seal a nomination.
On the Republican side, John McCain is surging ahead. He has 615 delegates to Romney's 268 and Huckabee's 169.
A Republican candidate needs a minimum of 1191 delegates to win the party's nomination.
Indian-Americans factor in 'Super Tuesday' primaries
The three million-strong Indian- American community is believed to have swung the electoral fortunes of major US Presidential hopefuls, including Senators Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, in the primaries of 'Super Tuesday'.
For Democratic Senators Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama, the community has not only played a crucial role in the run-up to the primaries both by way of physical and financial support but also with their huge concentrations in big and diverse states may have played even a "swing" role.
Indian-Americans are well dotted across the states of New York and New Jersey, the two major states going to Clinton last night; and Illinois, the home state of Obama, also has a large population of the community that has for the most part thrown its weight behind the son of the soil.
In California, especially where the Indian American community is present in large numbers, their voting impact has certainly helped Clinton get this huge state that offered as many as 441 delegates to the national convention.
There is no saying what would have happened to Clinton if she had lost California.
Exit polls in California showed that Clinton did very poorly among the White and African American population but did spectacularly well with the Asian American community by a three-to-one margin and with the Hispanic community by a two-to-one margin.
In a statement, the US India Political Action Committee (USINPAC) said, "Today, the more than 300,000 Indian-Americans who live and work in Silicon Valley are focused on deciding who the most business-friendly candidate for President is".
"The most business-friendly candidate here is a 'free trader' who believes that market forces are best and that outsourcing is not a 'war against the (American) middle class' as CNN commentator Lou Dobbs would have you believe."
It said, "There has been little battling amongst the candidates over the issue of outsourcing in part due to much larger domestic issues. The leading presidential candidates going into Super Tuesday say they favour allowing the global economy dictate the flow of jobs and business".
Senators Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama seek to reopen the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) to strengthen enforcement of labour and environmental standards.
Governor Mitt Romney, arguably the most pro-business candidate of all the Republican contenders, has been very vocal on wanting to renegotiate liberalised trade with China to stop currency manipulation that gives Chinese products unfair advantage.
"Indian-Americans like all Asian-Americans are poised to make a historic impact on Super Tuesday," the USINPAC said quoting Congressman Mike Honda, Vice-Chair of the Democratic National Committee, Chair of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus, and Member of the House India Caucus and the House Appropriations Committee.
The closeness of this race, especially on the Democratic side, and the fact that California has one of the highest concentrations of Indian-Americans only serve to magnify the community's influence in this so important an election year," the USINPAC statement said.
With the Republicans having had a critical primary in the state of Georgia, where the former Governor of Arkansas Mike Huckabee rode on the strength of the evangelical vote and won the state, the former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Newt Gingrich, hailed the role of the Indian American community not just in Georgia but throughout the South.
Today, when Americans are demanding real change from their elected leaders by addressing the many real challenges confronting our country, the Indian-American community is leading the effort by focusing on holding politicians accountable here in Georgia and throughout the South.
"Indian-Americans continue to make a significant contribution to our society and the community itself has grown dramatically in its political sophistication and involvement, and thus in making its voice heard clearly," Gingrich was quoted by the USINPAC as saying.
Source: DDNEWS
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