Univision and The Republican Debate In Spanish (Don't Press One For English)

December 8, 2007 | ED

[Earthdweller]

December 9, 2007 - Miami, Florida

Univision, the nation’s largest Spanish-speaking television network, will be sponsoring a Republican debate hosted by the University of Miami on December 9, 2007. The candidates in attendance will be Rudy Giuliani, Mitt Romney, Fred Thompson, Ron Paul, John McCain, Duncan Hunter, and Mike Huckabee.

But for millions of people who might want to view the debate, there could be a slight problem, to check the Univison website for air times you need to speak Spanish.

The explaination for a Spanish only site at first glance might be that there is a problem with inserting translation code into the website, but the webmaster clearly has the ability to add the translation software. While an English translation button is absent from Univison’s TV programming site, their English version Corporate site has a predominate Spanish translation button at the very top of the home page.

In addition, on the same Spanish only Univison TV programming site, there is a link to a bilingual site similar to My Space that appears to be a major concession to those Spanish speakers who want to hook up with American dates.

Now, I'm an English only speaker and with a serious thing like a Presidential debate airing tomorrow, I’m in too much of a hurry to hook up or even to wait for someone to put me on their Spanish “My Space” buddies list. I also need plenty of time to figure out how to activate the closed caption on my TV so I can read what people are saying. I figure it's the least I can do so I won't miss out on one of the most important debates of the 2008 election.

So with all this extra work I'm doing, I’m beginning to get a bit frustrated and I’m checking in my Webster’s English to Spanish dictionary to see if there is a Spanish equivalent to the word ‘ironic’.

It's true, I do try hard to be flexible in our ever increasingly PC world. I only moan for a second or two every time I have to push one for English, but I will have to admit that doing so is such an ever increasingly huge daily nuisance and I’ve have never even so much as gotten a thank you note from that machine voice on the other end of my phone.

Considering how much of my time I spend accommodating Univison's usual viewer-ship, it seems to me that Univison could at least offer me an English translation button so I can view their website.

But then again, accommodation is a two way street..in a perfect world.

[AmericanInTokyo]

I dont know. I do think that my earlier inclinations were correct and that Tancredo only hurt himself by pouting like a little kid and not showing up to this GOP gathering. The adults here are doing good. Thompson up now. He looks/sounds good. This is a good debate on lots of issues that have not come up in the other debates (Hugo Chavez, national ID card, illegal aliens, 14th Ammendment, anchore babies, etc.) VERY thorough discussion of illegal immigration. We needed this. NOW we need one nationwide/live and in ENGLISH! ONE SINGLE G.O.P. DEBATE only on Immigration issues, 90 minutes, no holds bar.

[spectre]

Well, if the Hispanics in the audience are sick and tired of being looked at like they're Illegals, they just might vote for someone like Duncan Hunter. I would.

sw

[AmericanInTokyo]

Ron Paul getting BOOED for saying, BRING THE TROOPS HOME FROM IRAQ NOW! Cheered on some things but also BOOED.

[Route66]

According to the Fred08 site, the audience was not pleased with Ron Paul’s desire to talk to authoritarians like Fidel Castro and Hugo Chavez.

[AmericanInTokyo]

Yeah, I saw Ron Paul get booed on that, too. They were NOT pleased about his idea to engage Castro and Chavez.

This is a GOOD crowd, folks.

[spectre]

Bye, bye Ron Paul..

sw

[RockinRight]

Seems like it.

[Route66]

For those interested in answers from Fred:

On Castro and Cuba Fred wants to make sure the dictator doesn’t survive 10 U.S. Presidents. Fidel has ill health. We should treat his successor, Raul, like Fidel and maintain the Cuban embargo.

Question: How long do we stay in Iraq?
Fred says the war is more than Iraq and Afghanistan. We’re at war with radical who want to destroy Western Civilization. We can’t afford to flee Iraq without victory. We must win, and we can win.

[AmericanInTokyo]

Those were good answers from Thompson. Of course I am biased toward Hunter who I think is doing splendid.

[Route66]

I’d be very surprised if both Fred and Duncan were not doing fine. I’m not trying to be exclusionary, it’s just that all I have to pass on is from Fred’s site.

[deport]

[AmericanInTokyo]

Duncan Hunter got a very good applause when he quoted REAGAN, with this:

"On election day the people of El Salvador braved ambush and gunfire, trudging miles to vote for freedom. A grandmother who had been told by the guerillas she would be killed when she returned from the polls told the guerillas, 'You can kill me, kill my family, and kill my neighbors, but you can't kill us all.' The real freedom fighters of El Salvador turned out to be the people of that country."

This crowd and questions are much more legitimate and pro-American, in my opinion, than the CNN "debates" were!!

[AmericanInTokyo]

It is over. None of them really attacked any of the others this time.

[Earthdweller]

"My impression from the applause and cheers, when and where it does come, is that this is a relatively Conservative Republican hispanic audience in that auditorium. Very interesting."

I got the very same impression.

[pulaskibush]

Maybe this will force Zogby and Rasmussen to poll hispanics on something other than immigration?

[Earthdweller]

They seem to strongly dislike Commies! There is hope.

[Gene Eric]

>> This crowd and questions are much more legitimate and pro-American, in my opinion, than the CNN “debates” were!!

I’m not surprised to here this. I have a positive point of view regarding this type of forum where Conservative values shouldn’t be hamstrung by a language barrier. This type of event should also help to expose those that are likely to pander.

[thelastinkling]

Hunter gets a lot of the Hispanic vote in San Diego

[Earthdweller]

Hunter got some of the loudest applause when he talked about Hispanics in the Military and winning the war in Iraq. They really want to win this thing. There was no mistake.

[WalterSkinner]

Hunter got some of the loudest applause when he talked about Hispanics in the Military

..IIRC the largest group per capita of Congressional Medal of Honor winners