Which Potential Candidates Speak Spanish—and Will It Matter? (Bush speaks only Spanish at home)

The Daily Beast ^ | December 14, 2014 | Eleanor Clift

[Nifster]

Yeah but (like Al Hunt) she is dumber than you are

[truth_seeker]

“Languages are hard. If you learn two languages, you’ll be half as fluent in either language.”

Americans are lazy about languages, so it may seem they are hard.

Most people in Europe are very fluent in two languages, at least.

And most offspring of immigrants that I know of, speak their parents language passably.

Back 100 years ago, immigrants wanted to “anglicize” as fast as possible, and distance themselves from the foreign identification.

Today it is cool, to have a foreign identity.

[harpu]

(Bush speaks only Spanish at home)

JUST ANOTHER REASON TO DISLIKE JEB!!!

[clintonh8r]

Spanish is one of the easiest languages to learn. Here in Florida many households who speak English outside the home (work, church, socializing, etc) speak only Spanish at home. It’s easy and has few nuances.

[9422WMR]

If you really wanna wig out a Mexican, ask them why they speak the language of the invading army that destroyed their ethnic culture!
The majority do not know that “Spanish”, is not native to Mexico.

[txrefugee]

Jeb should run for president of Mexico. They haven’t had a Bush as president, while we’ve had two. Share the wealth.

[PLMerite]

“Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, a potential presidential candidate, speaks nothing but Spanish at home, and has for years. His wife, Columba, is from Mexico.”

How p*ssywhipped does that make him, then?

[Tupelo]

Like many or most on the left, Eleanor Clift has a fascination for the Balkans and is attracted to the diversity of that region.

[a fool in paradise]

[caveat emptor]

Eleanor Clift and the Hispanic vote are both over-rated. From WaPo:

The U.S. Census Bureau released its November voting data and one thing is clear: The so-called Latino Sleeping Giant is still snoozing — fewer than half of all eligible Hispanics turned out to vote in 2012.

After nearly a year of breathless reports about how Latinos were going to trip over themselves to get to the polls and vote against Mitt Romney’s hard-line immigration stance — remember Time magazine’s Spanish-language cover “Yo Decido”? — the reality is less dramatic.

Yes, 11.2 million Latinos turned out to vote in 2012. But these headlines tell a different story: “As Hispanic Vote Lags, Millions of Votes Left on the Table,” “‘Record’ Hispanic Voter Turnout In 2012 a Misnomer, Census Numbers Show,” and “Gains in Hispanic vote fall short of projections.” ........

Paul Taylor and Mark Hugo Lopez summarized it for the Pew Research Center: “Hispanics continue to punch below their weight. Much was made right after the November election about the clout of the Hispanic vote (by, among others, the Pew Research Center). But the new Census Bureau data show that Hispanics’ turnout rate -- just 48 percent — as far below that of whites (64.1 percent) or blacks (66.2 percent).”

[mountainbunny]

No. Not at all. My husband grew up speaking four fluently, and two more passably.

Once you have mastered two, the third and subsequent usually come pretty easily if you’re young.

I have only English and Spanish. Working on Mandarin slowly and wish I’d started much earlier.

[Jane Long]

No es importante, a mí.

[Dagnabitt]

Good luck with the Mandarin. A friend was learning and tried to explain to me how three or four words were all spelled the same but differed only by "tone".

Just English and Norwegian for me. The latter is a relatively easy one to read, since it shares so much with English as a fellow Germanic language. A bit tougher to speak convincingly.

[rrrod]

yep...........

Mexicans have a very distinct accent....almost6 like singing. Plus never confuse a Tex Mex with mexicans...............not even from the same planet.

[Kenny Bunk]

Reagan used to say that Hispanics are conservatives, they just don’t know it yet—a view that Popkin echoes. “There’s a lot of middle-class, small-business-oriented Hispanics… But you can’t just eat a taco and give a speech in Spanish. It’s about your policies.”

Perhaps this is where Karl Rove got his idiotic idea of "Hispanics as the Republicans of the future." Sounds wonderful until the idea hits reality.
(1)There are vast differences of race, class, and education among Latinos, just as in other populations.
(2) There are very real national differences between Cubans, Argentines, Ecuadorans, Mexicans, and Guatemalans etc.
(3)So far, Latinos in the US have shown great social mobility ... in both directions: down, to compete with lower-end Negroes for welfare benefits, illegitimacy rates, criminal behavior, drug use etc., and up, to compete with others on the various Affirmative Action Gravy trains, and
(3) to integrate into American life and culture as the Cubans have done in Florida and elsewhere.

However, except for those Cubans of largely European extraction who have done so well integrating, the Latinos have been turning into perfect Democrats by an overwhelming majority.

The political life of the country will be affected as Hispanic populations increase to over 30% of the electorate. Just how the changes will come and what they will be is the question. Intermarriage is already well underway, Part Irish, Part Italian, Part Cuban Cruz is an example.

Hope it all works!

[Kenny Bunk]

OBTW, if all Hispanic immigration .... legal and illegal were to end today, demographically, this will still become the Northernmost Latin American Country in the hemisphere well before the end of this century.

That, my FRiends, is what all the pandering is about. Unless the borders are controlled, and immigration laws are enforced, though, you ain't seen nothin' yet. So far, we've seen massive immigration from Mexico, and a building influx from Central America. But there are easily 100 Million more from South America getting ready.

[Does so]

Most mexicans speak a very different Spanish than most of S America. Of course countries in SA have different dialects/accents.

A criminal case in Miami was dismissed by the judge when the legal staff couldn't find an interpreter for the defendant's Guatemalan-indian language. :-/

[rrrod]

Ive read/heard that about 30% of mexicans do not speak Spanish....More so in Guatemala

[43north]

Believe me, I’ve been educated on that fact. She did understand the dialect better than the guy who spoke formal Spanish though.

[KeyLargo]

Now that ALL of the GOP Rinos came out of the shadows and voted with the Democrats to prop up Obama and do the bidding for Wall Street we can be assured that there will be plenty of part-time jobs available at minimum wage for ALL!