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A prime offender in this, of course, is Bush, who insists on addressing Americans in Spanish.

So you hold it against Bush that he speaks Spanish to people who understand Spanish? That's xenophobic, and, frankly, silly.

One could only imagine what Teddy Roosevelt would have thought of one of his successors addressing Americans in a foreign language.

Exactly. You can only imagine because you don't know.

One can imagine what Fat Teddy would look like trying to run a seven-minute mile, as Bush does.

Thorin: "One could only imagine what Teddy Roosevelt would have thought of one of his successors addressing Americans in a foreign language."

sinkspur: " Exactly. You can only imagine because you don't know."

Every immigrant who comes here should be required within five years to learn English or leave the country.
-- Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919), Kansas City Star (April 27, 1918).

Expecting the American President to address Americans in English is neither "xenophobic" or "silly." In fact, it is a gross dereliction of duty for Bush to regularly speak Spanish to Americans, or to have an extensive Spanish section of the White House web page. (I do not object to his speaking Spanish to foreigners when he is abroad). The English language helps to hold America together, and regularly addressing Americans in a language other than English sends the signal that 1) English is not the national langauge and 2) learning the English language is not important.

The assimilation of the last great wave of immigrants was aided by the fact that they came to a self-confident America, which expected the immigrants to learn English and made no effort to coddle them. There was no talk of bilingual education then, and any American President who made a point of addressing the newcomers in a language other than English would have been ridiculed. Of course, precisely the opposite is occurring now.