Richard Fausset, Los Angeles Times
- Anh “Joseph” Cao, who hopes to be the first Vietnamese American elected to Congress, was helping a TV host with the pronunciation of his name.
It’s not “cow” but “gow,” he explained recently, with a hard “g.” The interviewer, Eustis Guillemet — an African American jazz bassist who also runs a local public affairs show — practiced the name repeatedly, as if learning a new riff.
“You know, ‘Cao’ means ‘tall,’ ” added the Republican candidate, who stands 5 feet 2 in his loafers. “And if you notice, I ain’t that tall.”
The “ain’t” was a departure for an otherwise formal man — a playful, deliberate shift into the soulful local vernacular and an acknowledgment, perhaps, that this rising star in New Orleans’ Vietnamese community will have to charm a significant number of black voters if he hopes to defeat the scandal-plagued but resilient incumbent, Rep. William J. Jefferson.
