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June 17, 2007

The Democrats fumble

Brian Schwarz and Thomas Lifson
For all the hoopla over the significance of the Hispanic vote and attention paid to the Univision voter registration (and certain to follow get-out-the-vote) drive, the Democrat presidential contenders seem to be "flunking Spanish," to quote the very astute Luis Clemens, of the website Clemenseando, which follows the Hispanic media.

Luis did an overview examination of the Spanish language offerings of the candidates’ websites and found them lacking.
Hillary Clinton:
The EN ESPAÑOL button is visible in the upper right hand corner of the home page. Once there, you can read about how Senator Clinton has "introducido proyectos legislativos". Yikes, introducir means insert rather than introduce legislation.

Bill Richardson (who is personally fluent):
…several amateurish grammatical errors. The most glaring mistake is "Bill Richardson está corriendo porque el próximo presidente ..."  In Spanish, unlike English, you cannot write a candidate is ´running´ for office. Yet, the writer opted for the literal translation of ´running´ as ´corriendo´.  

Looks like a non-native speaker did the work there. Low bidder?

Obama and Edwards come in for their own examinations.Follow the link and read the post for more. Luis is both fair minded and sharp, in my view. Keep your eye on his blog to understand a critical media dynamic in the electorate, politics, and culture of America.

In the wake of Hillary Clinton declining to participate in a Spanish language Presidential debate forum offered to the Democrats by Univision, it looks as though that project may go nowhere.
For all the fuss they make, it turns out the Dems are not doing much of a serious nature to address the Hispanic electorate. If the GOP can ever stop tearing itself apart, there might be an opportunity there.

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