I’m glad at least one of the candidates gets it.
Pity the others don’t.

*check thy email*

Left by no2liberals on December 7th, 2007 at 11:28 am

and yet in the same article tancredo admits that he has “given many interviews to Univisión as well as local Spanish-language stations.”

isn’t that also pandering? isn’t a spanish language station just as much of a “separate enclave” when it broadcast a debate as it is when it broadcast an interview? isn’t an interview with a politician a “public affair”? then how does that jive with tancredo’s insistance that “as Americans, we conduct our political affairs in English”?

Left by upyernoz on December 7th, 2007 at 11:48 am

An interview with a reporter is pandering?
Man, that changes everything.

Left by no2liberals on December 7th, 2007 at 4:42 pm

An interview with a reporter is pandering?

no more or less than participating in a debate is. either way, whether giving an interview for a spanish language news source, or participating in a debate broadcast on a spanish language news source, a politician who does it is trying to reach a spanish-speaking audience.

if robbie calls one “pandering”, the other must be too. is there any basis for distinguishing them?

Left by upyernoz on December 7th, 2007 at 4:55 pm

Any political debate is aimed at citizens. It is about issues of concern to the entire community, not a segment of the community.

If Tancredo honestly believes this then it seems awfully hypocritical for him to have attended the debate sponsored by the religious right on September 17th.

Left by Preston on December 7th, 2007 at 6:17 pm

Were they speaking English at the Values Voter Debate?
I think giving an interview with a reporter, is substantively different than attending a debate with translations given back and forth from questioner to questioned.
If the intended audience is legal citizens, then why should a translation be needed? If the intended audience is illegal immigrants, they can’t legally vote anyway. It’s an absurd scenario, just as it was when the donks did it. In fact, I’m going to email Mike’s campaign and tell him what I think of this political farce.
Thanks for the heads-up, Robbie.

Left by no2liberals on December 7th, 2007 at 7:20 pm

I think giving an interview with a reporter, is substantively different than attending a debate with translations given back and forth from questioner to questioned.

what is the difference? most debate rules forbid the candidates from directly addressing each other. their formats are basically interview format, where all the candidates are just addressing questions from a variety of different sources.

If the intended audience is legal citizens, then why should a translation be needed? If the intended audience is illegal immigrants, they can’t legally vote anyway. It’s an absurd scenario, just as it was when the donks did it.

and why don’t those questions apply just as much to a presidential candidate giving an interview in spanish, as tancredo claims he has done on many occasions? he’s simply inconsistent, getting on his high horse when he answers questions at something called a “debate”, but quietly doing the same thing when it is called an “interview.”

i don’t agree with tancredo on immigration at all, but if he’s going to stake out this position, he should at least be consistent. on the other hand, i am perfectly willing to watch the republican party shoot themselves in the foot.

Left by upyernoz on December 8th, 2007 at 8:19 am

Giving an interview with a lone reporter is answering direct questions, and making statements. If the reporter translates it into another language, that is there prerogative.
This event is simply the House of Pandercakes. It will exclude the majority of Americans, and debates are to be opportunities to speak to America at large, not a group that doesn’t speak English.
I would imagine I have univision somewhere on my list of many channels, but I would rather have my sinuses scraped, than watch a tortured process like this. It’s absurd, and at least Tancredo recognizes it.

Left by no2liberals on December 8th, 2007 at 11:05 am

Giving an interview with a lone reporter

well, what tancredo said he has done is given multiple interviews with reporters who were from spanish language channels like univision. it’s not just a matter of some random reporter deciding on his own to translate an interview. if you give an interview with a reporter from a spanish language channel, you’d have to be a moron not to expect it to be translated into spanish. and if a politician repeatedly agrees to be interviewed by spanish language channel reporters, it seems safe to assume that he is trying to reach a spanish-speaking audience.

once again, when you say…

It will exclude the majority of Americans, and debates are to be opportunities to speak to America at large, not a group that doesn’t speak English.

…the same exact thing could be said about tancredo giving multiple interviews to reporters from spanish language channels. as i noted above, the debates are all interview format debates. they are nothing more than group interviews with all the candidates at once. if it’s pandering to do a group interview with all the candidates, then its pandering to give individual interviews on the same spanish-only channel.

Left by upyernoz on December 8th, 2007 at 4:20 pm

I know you’ve convinced yourself, but not I.

Left by no2liberals on December 8th, 2007 at 6:37 pm