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July 23, 2007
Spanish as she is spoke on the stump.
Google news turned up an article about H.Clinton and Obama speaking at a convention of the National Council of La Raza. Of course you can guess what they said (despite an egregious use of "unique" by the Miami Herald to describe Obama's rhetorical contribution).
I actually clicked not because I was curious about their speeches, but because I was curious about language usage. Did either of them attempt stump-Spanish? Evidently not.
You see, Language Log has a little list of the linguistic ability of presidential candidates. Clinton is listed as 'apparently monolingual.' Obama, 'Speaks Indonesian and limited Spanish.' I think the Miami Herald would have mentioned if he used more than standard greetings, so I guess Clinton doesn't have to worry about Obama walking away with the La Raza vote on linguistic grounds.
Posted by CrankyProfessor at July 23, 2007 7:29 AM