Everyone wants a piece of nominee Barack Obama at this convention, and that includes the Asian American and Pacific Islander caucus.

The group has a strong presence here with events almost every day and a record number of Asian and Pacific Islander delegates in attendance. Monday night the Asian American and Pacific IslanderVote program will hold a "gala" reception featuring remarks from Senior Hawaii Sen. Daniel Inouye and State Senate President Colleen Hanabusa.

Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders like Obama, and as you will read below, he has some specific ideas on how he can support the Asian and Pacific Islander community.

"AAPIs" comprise only about 5 percent of the U.S. population. But during a Sunday briefing on their get-out-the-vote program, the organization laid out a scenario that concludes their numbers are significant enough to make a difference in close battleground states such as Nevada, Virginia , Florida, Pennsylvania and Washington. Hawaii, for obvious reasons, is considered to be a "safe" state for the Democratic AAPI group.

The AAPI group believes it has a particularly close claim on Obama, who is kind of, sort of, Asian in a way. He comes from Hawaii, he is hapa, his sister is half-Indonesian and he has a Chinese brother-in-law and so forth.

Obama for America put out a fact sheet outlining the many stands Obama has taken that might be of particular appeal to Asians and Pacific Islanders. Most of them are broad, such as making college more affordable, improving public education and reducing taxes on the elderly. On foreign policy, Obama promises to build cooperation in East Asia, reinforce the importance of South Asia (India, Pakistan) to America's interests and help stop the spread of avian flu.

But here's something you probably have not read many other places: Obama's position on issues of importance to the Pacific Islands. Take climate change, for instance. Obama would work to reduce manmade contributions to greenhouse gases that lead to climate change and the rise of ocean levels. This, he points out, is of particular importance to Pacific Islands whose tiny territories are in danger of slipping under the waves.

And, he says, he will work as president to strengthen the federal governments Pacific Tsunami Warning Center in Honolulu.

You don't hear that from just any candidate.

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