Anh Joseph Cao has become the first Vietnamese-American elected to Congress, defeating indicted incumbent William Jefferson, whose freezer was found to contain $90,000 in cold cash, and who awaits trial.

What the result may suggest is that Obama's success has lifted the standards which African-Americans use to judge other African-American candidates. They are refusing to send politicians to Washington just because they are AA. Adam Clayton Powell kept getting re-elected despite corruption; as did some other black politicians with scandal ties.

The political muscle of Vietnamese Americans has been building for years. They vote with gusto, are increasingly running for office and, in a county with a reputation for political conservatism, have been faithfully Republican.

"It wasn't that long ago that . . . members of the Vietnamese community were coming to the United States in dire straits after the fall of Saigon," said John J. Pitney Jr., a political scientist at Claremont McKenna College. "When it comes to the political rise of ethnic groups, [Vietnamese Americans] have actually risen very rapidly."

Once marginalized, Vietnamese American voters are now wooed by Orange County's white and Latino politicians alike, many of whom translate their campaign mailers and posters into Vietnamese and make a point to pose with the yellow and red striped flag of the fallen country of South Vietnam.