spazeboy

Univision Debate

I am not bilingual. I wish I were. Were I a Presidential candidate, I would feel threatened by the bilingual talents of my peers. But that’s me, and I’m not Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, or John Edwards. Perhaps that is why the historic first Spanish language Presidential debate will require all candidates to respond in English–whether or not they speak fluent Spanish:

Senator Dodd has committed to attend Univision’s historic Spanish-language presidential debate and was looking forward to talking with Univision’s viewers in Spanish. Today The Caucus reports in a post titled “English Only at Spanish Debate” that Univision is asking that all candidates issue their responses in English. Answers would then be translated into Spanish for the audience.

I highly doubt that the decision was Univision’s idea. It’s more likely to have been the result of pressure from the non-Spanish speaking frontrunners. You see, both Chris Dodd and Bill Richardson speak fluent Spanish. That they may not be allowed to respond to questions in Spanish speaks to how important the hispanic vote will be in 2008 (or how important we perceive it will be). I haven’t looked at poll numbers recently, but the last time I did neither Dodd nor Richardson (or even combination of the two) was posing a significant threat to the frontrunners–at least not one reflected in the numbers.

I don’t speak Spanish, but I thought it would be nice for some of the other candidates to have a leg-up in one of these debates. Hopefully there’ll be a talk clock that tracks how much time is spent unnecessarily translating the answers of Dodd and Richardson from the currently-required English back to Spanish.

In unrelated Dodd-news, if you have a few minutes today, go and respond to this poll put online by the Chris Dodd 2008 campaign:

We’re always trying to improve our use of technology to make the Dodd campaign more transparent and open to our supporters. We’ve come up with some good ideas over the campaign, but we’re always open to your suggestions. Today we want to ask you to give us your input on what you think the Dodd campaign should be doing online.

Would you like to see more live video from the campaign? How about cameras in the campaign headquarters?

More from the road? Bring back the Dodd Pod?

Maybe you’d like us to provide raw footage from commercial shoots to mash-up into user-generated pieces?

Or maybe it’s another idea you have?

Tell us what you think at http://chrisdodd.com/webvote

Your input will help us shape our internet operation — we want to give you the tools and information that you want to have a window into the Dodd campaign and express your support for Senator Dodd online. Please, tell us what you think now on our e-campaign survey!