Republican Mitt Romney's son has made a radio ad in Spanish touting mi padre and served as his ambassador to elderly voters in Little Havana. Now Craig Romney would like to take on a new role: Dad's translator at the Dec. 9 debate at the University of Miami to be broadcast on Univision.
Seems doubtful that Univision would let Romney translate questions asked in Spanish into English, since the network wouldn't let candidates Bill Richardson and Chris Dodd use their fluent Spanish in the Democratic debate in September.
"We wish we could bring our own interpreter,'' said Romney supporter Al Cardenas, the Cuban-American former chairman of the Republican Party of Florida. "It would be fun for for him to interpret for his dad, and it would demonstrate Gov. Romney's sensitivity to culture and language."
Speaking of which, someone might want to advise Romney not to describe Latin America as the "backyard,'' of the United States, as he did this week in a published column on Venezuela. Some Latin Americans consider the term offensive, noting that it takes longer to fly from Washington to Moscow than to Buenos Aires.
Beth, can you read the last sentence and tell me how that contradict with the "backyard" portion? If anything, it seems to justify the term and nullify the concern of those specific Latin Americans.
Posted by: | November 30, 2007 at 12:43 PM
The comment by Gov Romney about Venezuela being in our back yard reflects an understanding that has been missing from the presidential debates. When we speak about the rogue leaders of Iran, Korea and Venezuela we seem to forget that only one of these countries is in our hemisphere. In adition to the geographical proximity we have not traded with Iran anything in almost 30 years, and there is nothing to trade with Korea. Venezuela holds the 2nd largest reserve of crude in the world and represents 15% of our daily need of imported oil.
Finally we might have a President that understands the strategic value Venezuela has for us Americans.
Posted by: Leonard Boord | November 30, 2007 at 02:23 PM