Posted on 12/10/2007 11:25:59 AM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
Editor’s Note: By participating in the historic Spanish-language debate on Univision, Republican candidates finally realized that they need Latino votes. But is it “too little, too late?" NAM editor Elena Shore monitors Spanish language media.
The first Spanish-language Republican presidential candidate debate couldn’t have come at a better time for the GOP. Latino support for the Republican Party has dropped substantially when the Latino vote is more important than ever. The candidates’ jostling over who is tougher on immigration has alienated Latinos even further.
Seven of the eight Republican presidential candidates showed up at the University of Miami Sunday with something to prove. Republican Tom Tancredo declined to participate, calling the Spanish-language debate un-American.
Unlike their Democratic competitors in the Univision debate three months ago, the Republican candidates were vying for the votes of a community that now has little support for the GOP.
Each candidate made a pitch to Latino voters at some point in the debate –but unlike debates in the English- language media, it was a pitch not for the candidate but for the Republican Party.
They did this while walking what some may consider to be a fine line; presenting themselves as opposed to illegal immigration but responsive to the concerns of Latino immigrants.
Candidates addressed legal immigrants, constantly reminding them of their differences from those who came to the country illegally – and even presenting undocumented immigrants as a threat to those who have waited in line to earn legal residency or citizenship. Defining this line between legal and illegal immigrants was essential to their success.
But the line is difficult to draw: As some of the questions reflected, the policies and climate toward undocumented immigrants can have ramifications for all Latinos. With the only question to receive applause from the audience, Jorge Ramos asked whether U.S.-born children who have an undocumented parent “have the right not to be separated from their parents.” Mitt Romney responded by attempting to draw an even deeper line: “We’re going to eliminate illegal immigration to protect legal immigration,” he said.
Maria Elena Salinas noted that four out of five Hispanics in the United States are legal residents or U.S. citizens, and asked what each candidate would do to combat anti-Hispanic sentiment in the United States.
In a bizarre attempt to pin the problem on illegal immigrants, Mike Huckabee said that once the border is secured, this problem will disappear. He said that racial profiling – when people hear an accent and presume the person is illegal – will not be a problem if illegal immigration is eliminated. “It’s in the best interest of legal immigrants to regularize immigration so no one questions their legitimacy,” he said.
Ron Paul was applauded when he answered that this resentment against Latinos actually has more to do with the economy. “If we have a healthy economy,” he said, “I think this problem will decrease a lot.”
As they negotiated the thorny topic of immigration to a Latino audience – through seven Spanish interpreters with different accents (several of whom made noticeable errors) – the candidates came across surprisingly clear. This was especially true when each extolled the virtues of the Republican Party. As if they had discussed the strategy together in the green room, each candidate listed shared concerns of Latinos and the GOP.
“A lot of the rhetoric that Hispanics hear about illegal immigration makes them think that we aren’t in favor of, or seeking the support of, Hispanics in the United States,” said John McCain. “Hispanics are in favor of small business, religion. They’re against regulation. They’re in favor of the Armed Forces.”
Duncan Hunter listed freedom and life as core values shared by Latinos and Republicans.
Fred Thompson cited family and opposition to gay marriage: “Hispanics know what their values are. They know, for example, that marriage is between a man and a woman. They know family is at the center of society.”
Romney shone in the debate, giving a strong pitch for the Republican Party in his opening remarks: “People came here for opportunity and our party is the party of opportunities. We stand for strength in the home, the family, the economy, the military… and so, of course, Republicans are going to have to speak to Hispanic Americans in the language they understand best.”
Rudy Giuliani, meanwhile, gave an essentially different pitch for the GOP.
Rather than arguing that so-called “Hispanic values” mirrored the values of the Republican Party, Giuliani took a different approach than the other candidates, arguing that Hispanics have the same priorities as all Americans, including health and education.
When asked if their participation in the Univision debate risked losing conservative votes, Giuliani laughed, saying that “Hispanics are Americans too,” and we all share the same concerns.
Judging by the cheers (for everyone, especially Romney) and boos (for Paul, when he suggested that the United States should talk with Hugo Chavez and Fidel Castro), the Miami audience gave the candidates instant feedback as they pleaded their case to Latino voters.
As much as anything they said, simply participating in the historic Spanish-language debate showed that the Republican Party may finally realize that they need Latino votes. The only question now is, Is it too late?
You are suppose to get American votes. This just divides everyone.
You’re missing the bigger point of this article - the fact that the GOP is now changing their tune in general.
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
I just went to Fred’s website: http://www.fred08.com/virtual/Immigration.aspx
He hasn’t changed a word on illegal immigration! Take a look....
Duncan, Duncan, you’re losing my vote.
I doubt they’ll gain one percent of the votes they lose by this despicable balkanization.
Why don’t they go to Beijing and debate in mandarin while they are at it?
Tancredo refused to show for this fiasco....GOP should be ashamed of themselves.......what happened to ASSIMILATION? WHY was this debate translated into Spanish????
The reason can be found here.
http://www.timebomb2000.com/misc/CWII.pdf
It’s a long read, but the reason is in there.
On the other hand: Fred Thompson not only doesn’t add cream or sugar to his coffee, he doesn’t add water!!
LOL!
I was proud of Tom Tancredo, only American citizens are supposed to vote, and to be a citizen one needs to have a working knowlege of the English Language, plus all the ballots are printed in about 25 languages, plus one can bring some one in the booth to help them vote if needed,, so I think this pandering to one group is wrong..
I agree.
Where can I find a transcript in English of the questions AND a video of the candidates’ answers in English?
I’d really like to hear the questions and answers — I don’t trust anyone to translate for me what the candidates said to their Latino audience.
Am I being too suspicious?
Their tune goes something like this:
Hey now baby, get into my big black car.
Hey now baby, get into my big black car.
I want to just show you what my politics are.
Im a political man and I practice what I preach.
Im a political man and I practice what I preach.
So dont deny me baby, not while youre in my reach.
I support the left, though Im leaning, leaning to the right.
I support the left, though Im leaning to the right.
But Im just not there when its coming to a fight.
Hey now baby, get into my big black car.
Hey now baby, get into my big black car.
I want to just show you what my politics are.
Cream
A couple of dirty little secrets the MSM has deliberately avoided telling their readers is that the audience was very enthusiastic about the Republican’s answers to the debate questions. Only Ron Paul was booed loudly and that was for his anti-war sentiments and his statement that he would open a dialog with Castro and Hugo Chavez. The predominantly Cuban-American crowd didn’t like that at all. Funny how the MSM missed that.
“Apart from Tom Tancredo, none of the GOP candidates dared to say no to La Raza. That says it all.”
No, Hunter went into the fire and stayed the course. The rest of them pandered.
“HUNTER: After that, 12 million more people came in. If we give
an amnesty to this next batch of 12 million people, you will have a
third wave of people coming in expecting to catch the third amnesty.
You know, this lady behind me represents a lot of things. One is
welcoming immigrants to America. The other is the rule of law. We
have to establish the rule of law, and people who are here illegally
have to go home.”
(APPLAUSE)
Transcript: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1937224/posts
Hunter:
MODERATOR: Congressman Hunter, I want to ask you the same question. How are you going to think (inaudible) you’re going to recover the lost ground among Hispanics?
HUNTER: Well, you know what? I understand.
HUNTER: I talked to Donna Shalala, and she said actually a number of young people are going to register to vote tonight, and I want them to register for our party, for the Republican Party.
And I’ll tell you a great reason to be a Republican. And it’s a story that’s told 90 miles away and 1,500 miles away, because 90 miles away, in 1961, the Cuban freedom fighters fought on the beach in Cuba against Castro’s forces.
And a Democrat administration let their aircraft carrier sit there, while those freedom fighters were machine-gunned, because they felt there was too much pressure coming from the United Nations — either machine-gunned or captured.
HUNTER: Many years later, 1,500 miles away, in a little place called El Salvador, a Republican president, Ronald Reagan, provided that little shield around that government, while they stood up and had free elections and brought freedom to El Salvador.
It’s a story of two parties. It’s a story of the party of freedom. That’s the Republican party. That’s why I would register Republican and support our party this year.
(APPLAUSE)
MODERATOR: Congressman Hunter, why not support the (amnesty) legalization?
HUNTER: Did you ask the same question?
MODERATOR: OK, why you’re not support that idea?
HUNTER: Listen, when I was — when I came back from Vietnam, I was a practicing lawyer in the barrio. I was the only lawyer there, and I never turned away a family that came in and needed help.
But I told them a couple of things. One thing is, you have to be here legally, because the first thing you’ve got to learn in this country is the rule of law. And the second thing is, you have to make sure that your kids learn English, because that is the American opportunity.
Now, in 1983, we gave an amnesty, and when we gave that amnesty, 3 million people came in who were allowed to stay in who were here illegally. We said at that point, no more, and we’re not going to let anybody else come in.
HUNTER: After that, 12 million more people came in. If we give an amnesty to this next batch of 12 million people, you will have a third wave of people coming in expecting to catch the third amnesty.
You know, this lady behind me represents a lot of things. One is welcoming immigrants to America. The other is the rule of law. We have to establish the rule of law, and people who are here illegally have to go home.
(APPLAUSE)
MODERATOR: The vast majority of Hispanics, four out of five, are either legal residents or American citizens. Many of them feel affected by the negative tone of the immigration debate. How would you — what would you do to curb this anti-Hispanic sentiment?
MODERATOR: First of all, Congressman Hunter...
HUNTER: You know, I represent a district in San Diego, California and Imperial County, California, and that county for many, many years is a majority Hispanic and two-to-one Democrat. And I’m known as the guy who built the double-border fence that lowered the crime rate so dramatically, that stopped all the drug trucks from coming through, that stopped the smuggling of people and narcotics by more than 90 percent.
You know what you do? You look people in the eye and you talk to them frankly.
I would say this: I got more votes from the Hispanic community — known as the guy who built the border fence — from the Hispanic community, than anybody running for office, whether it was President Clinton on a presidential year, or one of the local or the state assemblyman or U.S. Senators.
That means that the Hispanic community in the United States does not agree with the idea of having open borders. They do agree with the idea of having order on the border and having a regulated system where this lady of freedom standing behind me, the Statue of Liberty, says: Come in, but follow the rules.
(APPLAUSE)
MODERATOR: Thank you.
The next question, of course, if regarding Iraq.
Congressman Hunter, surveys show that two out of three Hispanics think that the United States should withdraw its troops from Iraq. How would you convince
them of the fact that they should stay there — the troops should stay there?
HUNTER: Well, you know, there’s lots of Hispanic Americans serving in Iraq.
HUNTER: And my son came back from his third tour as a U.S. Marine on Thanksgiving, having served in Iraq twice and Afghanistan.
(APPLAUSE)
And, you know, if you check with the Hispanics of the 1st Marine Division or the 10th Army Division of the 1st Cavalry, you’ll get a lot different poll than the poll that you’re telling me right now, because the young men and women who are serving over there know we can win in Iraq.
(APPLAUSE)
And let me tell you what they’ve done. With blood, sweat and tears they have brought down the attack rate in Anbar province by 80 percent. They brought it down over the entire nation.
The Iraqi army is now standing up, all 131 battalions. That government’s going to hold and the army’s going to hold, and we are going to leave Iraq in victory, and we’re going to leave an Iraq that will be a friend, not an enemy of the United States.
(APPLAUSE)
So we’re going to be victorious in Iraq, and Hispanic Americans who serve there know that.
(APPLAUSE)
MODERATOR: Congressman Hunter, you know that problem of dropping out of Hispanics...
HUNTER: You know, in California there was a great teacher named Jaime Escalante, who taught calculus. And he taught calculus in the barrio so effectively that his kids when they took the test were accused of cheating by the school district because they scored so high.
Jaime Escalante brought to the school system the one thing that we need throughout America, and that is inspiration, because young people are deciding what they want to do when they’re in third, fourth, fifth, sixth grade.
And what we’re going to have to do — and incidentally, Jaime Escalante ultimately left that school district and the calculus program went down because he had a run-in with the teachers union.
What we have to do in this country is to take away all this old credentialing. We’ve got to bring in aerospace engineers and pilots and mathematicians and scientists and business-people, and we have to bring in people who can inspire kids at a young age to reach for the stars, and then convince them to work hard enough to get there.
HUNTER: Inspiration, that’s how we increase our capability in education.
(APPLAUSE)
Congressman Hunter, what would be — what role would Hispanics play in the future of our society?
HUNTER: Well, first, I want them to play a role as Republicans. And I want to invite, again, all the young people who are — registering to vote — tonight — to just remember a couple of things.
One thing is that that lady in El Salvador who stood there in the line for the elections after a Republican president, Ronald Reagan, had protected El Salvador and provided for free elections, and she had a bullet hole in her arm and she was asked, do you want to go to the aid station, and she said, yes, but first, I vote.
So, remember, Republicans stand for freedom.
Secondly, I want you to remember the Republicans stand for life, that the man who founded our party, Abraham Lincoln, did so on the basis of the value of human beings.
And lastly, I’d like you to remember that, you know, Democrats think this is a great country because of what government does for people, while Republicans think this is a great country because of what free people do for themselves.
HUNTER: I think Hispanics have a great role with this great nation.
(APPLAUSE)
I love that song!!! So true.
“A couple of dirty little secrets the MSM has deliberately avoided telling their readers is that the audience was very enthusiastic about the Republican’s answers to the debate questions. Only Ron Paul was booed loudly and that was for his anti-war sentiments and his statement that he would open a dialog with Castro and Hugo Chavez. The predominantly Cuban-American crowd didn’t like that at all. Funny how the MSM missed that.
How dare you barge into this thread with FACTS!
/s
k. we can all revert back to calling RP names now.
True - Giuliani and some of the others did change their stance, but Thompson, Paul, and one or two others did not. Of course, that will be lost in the media..
This all goes back to Lee Atwater’s big tent.
“It’s supposed to be about Americans. This just divides.”
If that is a concrete position then there can be no addressing evangelical organizations or right to life organizations. Folks in those are Evangelical-Americans or Pro Life-Americans. Both could be called hyphenated categories.
I guess the question becomes . . . is ethnicity more divisive than political position on some particular issue like religion or abortion. One would think not. More wars have been fought over religion in history than abortion. Probably more than over ethnicity. Maybe more than over anything but money. I guess we haven’t yet got to the point of hyphenating Wealthy-Americans vs Poor-Americans.
In general there is nothing wrong with addressing Hispanic American voters. Or Asian American voters. FYI Hispanics are not the fastest growing voter demographic. Asians are.
ping
Thank you very much.
He didn't pander. He said that all illegals must go back to where they came from. He said that the rule of law must be respected.
Why? He went before them and told it like it is. Not even a hint of pandering.
ROFL ROFL ROFL!
I read AuntB’s post. It sounds better than I thought.
I guess I should credit Duncan Hunter’s ability to show up at such places and still remain true since he has managed to do the same in Congress all these years.
I’m like a cat on a political hot time roof these days, LOL.
Hunter told it like it was about immigration, the law, Iraq, etc., etc. and he was roundly applauded for it at that debate. Read the transcript and you will only find all the more reason for supporting Hunter.
My concern is the whole industry of spanish language appearing in the United States. They have tremendous incentive to balkanize the country.
Sniff, I’m just so emotional on this issue . . . because I’m HOMESICK for American culture!
He did well. Duncan Hunter is the man!
“I’m like a cat on a political hot time roof these days, LOL.”
Join the crowd! LOL! Early on someone ‘told’ me something that I ‘missed’ about Hunter. I was ready to throw him to the curb, thankfully I checked it out and it was totally wrong information. My informer had him confused with Murtha!
“Sniff, I’m just so emotional on this issue . . . because I’m HOMESICK for American culture!”
Sometimes I think the open border advocates don’t even know what we’re talking about when we say “American culture’.
I’m more than happy to allow anyone to practice their culture, but not at the expense of mine. As my Daddy said, ‘your rights stop where my nose starts’. Some ‘cultures’ just do not understand the concept. I lost all the value of my 30 year home because of a ‘culture’ that destroyed the entire neighborhood within 2 weeks. It was amazing to watch. Someone elses cheap labor doesn’t impress me. It cost my family over a million dollars and our future. The FROBL claim ‘they just want the American dream!’. Well, they sure cost my family ours and we worked for it.
That would be "tin roof", tsk.
I know what you mean. My nice modest retirement in my safe neighborhood isn't turning out so well.
Just making sure you think that is a good thing, correct?
Ping to post #18. Did we ever jam on that one? haha
It sounds like Hunter laid it out straight and wasn’t booed because of it. Would be great if he starts surging to get rid of the top tier of RINOS.
Yes, Hunter did an excellent job yesterday. Saw it and heard it directly.
You won't be hearing anything like that from Mitt, Mike, Rudy or Fred.......
Yep, Hunter went into it loaded for bear and came out magnificent. To me and other Americans putting the order of law and border enforcement above open borders and Latinos hoping for a continuing escape from the countries they need to “Sandanista” in.
That had that dizzying Jack Sparrow thing...
Seriously though, I respect Tom’s moral stand (and good sense) of abstaining from an obviously biased audience while his stance has made him a literal demon to Hispanics South of our border. His presence would have caused an uproar and disrupted the hispandering.
Which proves what a great job he’s doing.
Great youtube clip slamming the Huckster for wanting to give away the store on immigration. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hei8iDK61do
Please let me know what you think is wrong with Fred Thompson's immigration plan....
You’ve made this point before. My guess is that all of the Romney and Thompson boys were perfectly suited for military service. And yes, Duncan does gain credibility not only for having been there and done it himself but also for raising sons who did not shirk responsibility.
Nothing at all. There are some Freepers that have a problem with his immigration plan though which baffles me...
Do we live in Sparta or the United States of America? I didn’t know that all adults now have a responsibility to join the military. Please direct me to the link for that story, because I somehow missed it. Are the Bush twins, Chelsea Clinton or Amy Carter in the service? How about Ronald Reagan’s progeny? I imagine “don’t ask, don’t tell” might exclude Ron Reagan, Jr.
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