Today Howard Fineman predicted that at least one presidential debate would be held in Spanish -- that is, that it would appear on a Spanish language television station (or so it was blogged here.)
"Look for the Spanish-language television networks to sponsor debates -- in Spanish -- in this presidential election season. And the two people who benefit from that are Bill Richardson, who we were discussing, and Chris Dodd, who was a Peace Corps worker... Dodd, I'm told by Spanish speakers, speaks Spanish better than Richardson does."
Which will be interesting, since Richardson is staking his political ethos on his ethnicity. Will Hispanic voters let him get away with that if his Spanish isn't as good as the white guy's? Or do they espouse what this guy said in the comments of The Bloggingstocks.com:
2. I lived in extreme south Texas for 30 years,and although I love the Hispanic people, their language, and their culture, more than one national language divides a country. Furthermore, if they don't like the US as it is, they should go back to Mexico. Don't import your 3rd world way of thinking here. Come here and learn our culture and our language, or go back.Absolutely no citizenship should be conferred upon any foreigner unless the person is fluent, very fluent in English. This country was not made great by the Spanish language, or the Spanish speaking people, or by the ways of any of the Spanish speaking countries. Most of us who were born and raised here strongly resent you thinking about changing this country to your standards. You didn't make this country what it is. Love it or leave it.
I strongly believe that it should be made illegal to print ballots or any other material in anything but English. Catering to the Spanish language simply makes it easier for them not to learn English.
The reason we have such a conflict now over the issue is that it was not met with strict discipline when the very first immigrants arrived from the south. They could get by with Spanish, so they did. Now they want everybody to learn Spanish, or at least to have everything printed and spoken in both languages. It is high time to put a stop to this nonsense. No way, Jose.
Comments (1)
I can't wait for such a debate, which, if it's anything like the Spanish-language debates in Texas, should be a comedy of tragic proportions.
Historically, Spanish-speaking voters don't seem to have any minimum standards when it comes to the quality of candidates' Spanish -- even some very smart pols like Al Gore sound pretty much like they learned Spanish at the same school as La Primera Dama Arbusto but they get points just for trying. Gerald Ford may have embarrassed himself by trying to eat a tamal husk and all, but the linguistic equivalent hasn't been a problem.
As for Bill Richardson, I haven't heard him speak, but it's important to remember that most Spanish-speaking voters grew up with little or no formal education in Spanish and so may resonate better with some flavors of "imperfect" border Spanish than with what edumacated gringos like me aspire to. And then there are wild cards like regional variations -- Dodd did his Peace Corps work in the Dominican Republic, which presumably will go over great with Dominican-Americans and maybe with Cuban-Americans and Puerto Ricans, but how will it sound to predominantly Mexican-American voters from Texas to California?
Posted by Prentiss Riddle | April 7, 2007 11:09 AM
Posted on April 7, 2007 11:09