Konrad Ng posts today about the addition of three more superdelegates for Obama: the new Hawai’i state Democratic Party chair Brian Schatz, vice chair Kari Luna and at-large superdelegate James Burns.

Schatz (photo) is a former state representative. Luna is a Maui teacher. And Burns is a former state appeals court judge and the son of Gov. John Burns, the second governor of the state of Hawai’i and its first Democratic governor.  Burns is considered to be the father of Hawai’i’s Democratic Party.

With the additional three superdelegates, the AP count stands at 1,977 delegates overall for Obama, just 49 delegates short of the 2,026 needed to clinch the nomination. Clinton has 1,779.

I attended a Kearny Street Workshop exhibition last night featuring photos by Bay Area visual artist Bob Hsiang. Bob mentioned his daughter was a Wesleyan alum; we talked briefly about Sen. Obama’s commencement speech today.

The campaign posted the full text of the speech here. As I was reading news coverage of his speech, I noted that the Wesleyan commencement this year did not have the university orchestra playing “Pomp and Circumstance,” but the processional and recessional music was played by Japanese taiko drummers.

Photo of Obama by Spencer Platt, Getty Images, May 25, 2008. Photo of taiko drummer by Michael Kodas, Hartford Courant, May 25, 2008. More photos here.

The Obama camp needs 61 49 48 more delegates to win the nomination. Sen. Clinton will need 245 246 more. There are three more contests left: in Puerto Rico (June 1st, 55 delegates), Montana (June 3rd, 15), and South Dakota (June 3rd, 16), with 86 more pledged delegates and about 200 superdelegates up for grabs in total. We’re getting really close! And, as Tom Paine once wrote, "the harder the conflict, the more glorious the truimph.

From Flickr

We had a comment on the "Sen. Barack Obama clinches Pledged Delegate Lead" post that recommended the site Click4Obama, available at http://www.click4obama.com and has a facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/apps/application.php?id=14508234474. Basically, you answer questions about civics and current events and help raise money for the candidate with each correct answer, kind of like http://www.freerice.com/. I tried out a few questions myself, so why not pay a visit today?

My friend Mae Cheng, amNewYork executive editor, yesterday called me to chat about an upcoming panel on Asian Americans and the presidential election that she’s moderating.  We chatted about trends, relevance, swing votes, stereotypes, that strange PAC run by some former lt. gov., etc.

I mentioned to Mae that I thought it interesting that Gov. Bobby Jindal (R-LA) was mentioned as being on McCain’s VP short list.  I wondered what kind of divide that would create among Asian Americans if he were on the other ticket.  Many South Asians from all over the political and ideological spectrum donated to his campaign; and he is today the first governor of South Asian descent and the first governor of color in Louisiana since Reconstruction.

Would South Asians and other Asian Americans be torn (like amardeep was in the gubernatorial race) about supporting the first Asian American to be on a presidential ticket?

I doubt we’ll find out.  I agree with what Gautum Dutta wrote yesterday on the AAA-Fund blog: "McCain’s trotting out Jindal to (try to) show that the GOP cares about diversity."

Most of the media coverage has accurately reported on the significance of Gov. Jindal in American politics. Although the Telegraph’s (UK) Washington writer got it wrong when he mentioned Jindal as the first American governor of Asian descent.  Nope, that would be George Ariyoshi of Hawai’i, elected governor in 1974.

My friend Mae Cheng, amNewYork executive editor, yesterday called me to chat about an upcoming panel on Asian Americans and the presidential election that she’s moderating.  We chatted about trends, relevance, swing votes, stereotypes, that strange PAC run by some former lt. gov., etc.

I mentioned to Mae that I thought it interesting that Gov. Bobby Jindal (R-LA) was mentioned as being on McCain’s VP short list.  I wondered what kind of divide that would create among Asian Americans if he were on the other ticket.  Many South Asians from all over the political and ideological spectrum donated to his campaign; and he is today the first governor of South Asian descent and the first governor of color in Louisiana since Reconstruction.

Would South Asians and other Asian Americans be torn (like amardeep was in the gubernatorial race) about supporting the first Asian American to be on a presidential ticket?

I doubt we’ll find out.  I agree with what Gautum Dutta wrote yesterday on the AAA-Fund blog: "McCain’s trotting out Jindal to (try to) show that the GOP cares about diversity."

Most of the media coverage has accurately reported on the significance of Gov. Jindal in American politics. Although the Telegraph’s (UK) Washington writer got it wrong when he mentioned Jindal as the first American governor of Asian descent.  Nope, that would be George Ariyoshi of Hawai’i, elected governor in 1974.

Guam Congresswoman and Secretary of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus (CAPAC), Madeleine Bordallo, annouced her endorsement yesterday, praising Obama for offering "us the leadership needed to address the challenges Guam and our nation will face in the coming years."

From: http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/konrad/gGBD5f

…And leads in the popular vote count even if Florida and Michigan are counted.

As the polls currectly predicted, Sen. Clinton sweeps Kentucky while Sen. Obama takes Oregon. But a significant milestone was reached tonight as now, no other candidate can claim to have a majority of the pledged delegate vote. Thanks to all the Obama volunteers who helped us attain the critical mark. Now we need 93 more delegates to lock up the nomination to Clinton’s 269. We’ll keep you posted.

From: http://www.dailykos.com/

Update: Obama will need just 63 delegates to claim the nomination; Clinton needs 245. Almost there!

Angelica Jongco shared with us the news (DailyKos post here) that former Army Captain James Yee won an Obama-pledged delegate spot in the Washington State delegate last Saturday. Yee even did a homemade video (above) for his delegate candidacy.

Yee, the Muslim Chaplain for the U.S. prison camp in Guantanamo Bay and a West Point graduate, was arrested and imprisoned in a Naval brig for 76 days in September 2003 while being falsely accused of spying, espionage, and aiding the alleged Taliban and Al-Qaeda prisoners.

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Take a 13 second break to check out this mother and son news team, Amrutha and Ravi Chandra, bearing good news from the future. Unfortunately, this rarely seen footage, will only be available
for the next 30 days, so don’t miss your chance to check it out! You may remember Amrutha (pictured with yours truly) from this clip at the San Francisco AAPIs for Obama party in January.