Univisión hosts the next Democratic presidential debate on Sunday, September 9 in Miami, but do not expect any live coverage from inside the debate from bloggers. Both sides — Univisión and bloggers — failed to do the necessary outreach to make it happen.
This is a real missed opportunity to build bridges between the Spanish-language media and los blogueros, especially for such a historic political event as a Spanish-language presidential debate. Spanish-speaking bloggers could have provided a real service with a unique perspective on a debate for non-Spanish-speaking blog readers and writers. Sadly, it appears neither side — the media or Spanish-speaking bloggers — had the foresight.
Beyond failures of both sides to reach out, the Latino community should take note of the starkly different approaches by the two major political parties and Spanish-language debates.
Democrats should be lauded for their efforts to reach out to the Latino community on this front. Contrast that with the fact that only Senator John McCain (R-Arizona) agreed to come to a Republican debate held by Univisión, causing the network to cancel it for a lack of interest. I applaud McCain for that. (And really, what does he have to lose? His campaign is virtually over.)
Something should be said, however, for the Republicans’ refusal to show up at a Spanish-language debate. The candidates know that the nativist base would be up in arms if they actually went through with it. Remember last baseball season when right-wing conservative blogger, Michelle Malkin, went nuts because the Texas Rangers wore jerseys in Spanish? (And it was not just her, either.)
Yeah, it would be worse than that.
It is obvious that The Republican Party’s base has moved so far to the right on immigration, Latino issues, and race-related issues, in general, that the candidates cannot be bothered for a few hours of their time to spend. For all their talk about the GOP’s “big tent,” Republicans conspicuously spend so little time on black, Latino, Asian, etc., issues unless to demonize them as red meat for the base.
This primary season, the Republican candidates have routinely ignored persons of color.
They’ll Talk To Anyone… Only One Republican Candidate to Address NAACP. The NAACP is holding its annual convention Thursday morning in Detroit. Though all Republican candidates were invited over two months ago, only Tancredo might attend. Giuliani, Romney, McCain and Huckabee all cited scheduling conflicts. Giuliani will be in Michigan that day, and Romney has no public events scheduled. All eight Democratic presidential candidates have accepted invitations to speak. [Detroit Free Press, 7/10/07]
Just Not Hispanics, African Americans, Teachers or Young PeopleOnly One Republican Addressed NALEO. “The National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials invited all Republican presidential hopefuls to its annual convention at Disney World at Lake Buena Vista, Fla. Only one showed up — Rep. Duncan Hunter, of California…. On Saturday, seven Democratic presidential candidates were slated to attend a forum at the NALEO conference, including Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York, Barack Obama of Illinois, Christopher Dodd of Connecticut, Joseph Biden of Delaware, former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards, New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, and Rep. Dennis Kucinich of Ohio.” [Austin American-Statesman blog, 6/29/07][links added]
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Left by The Right’s Field » Giuliani Makes The Mistake Of Being Technically Right
September 8, 2007 at 5:12pm