How many other Anglo pols could do this?

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Yahoo

Friday May 4 12:45 PM ET

Bush Tapes Saturday Radio Address in Spanish

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Bush (news - web sites), who often throws Spanish words or phrases into his speeches and comments, taped his weekly radio address in Spanish and plans to have future addresses translated.

White House spokesman Ari Fleischer (news - web sites) said the radio address, taped on Friday for broadcast on Saturday, was done in both English and Spanish.

``In an unprecedented first for a national radio address, the president taped it in Spanish as well as in English,'' Fleischer told reporters.

``And from this point forward, all radio addresses will be translated into Spanish and will be made available to Spanish radio stations throughout the country.''

In reference to Bush's tendency to mangle the English language, Fleischer said the president had shown some concern about doing the same in a second language.

``The president himself said ... he hopes he doesn't butcher the Spanish as badly as he has the English,'' Fleischer said.

Bush, whose home state of Texas borders on Mexico, speaks conversational Spanish and admits to a less than perfect delivery.

In another apparent nod to the growing political influence of Hispanics, Bush will throw a Cinco de Mayo party for about 300 people at the White House on Friday.

Cinco de Mayo falls on Saturday but the Bushes are spending the weekend at Camp David so are celebrating early. Cinco de Mayo, a common celebration in U.S. states bordering Mexico, commemorates the Mexican Army's victory over the French Army at the Battle of Puebla.

-- Lars (larsguy@yahoo.com), May 04, 2001

Answers

What a farce! He is taping this address. That means his handlers will write a phonetic version of this "speech" that he will read, not speak. That means he will practice his pronunciation with speech coaches in advance.

Let's see him do a live, unrehearsed press conference in Spanish.

Paredon!

-- (Dumbya@Debbie.doesDallas), May 04, 2001.

I'd like to see him do a live, unrehearsed press conference in English.

-- (dumby@the.moron), May 04, 2001.

We need to be very very careful that he does not declare war on China in Spanish.

-- Enlightenment (gone@away.now), May 04, 2001.

The fact remains that El Dubya can speak some Spanish. Spanish is one of the world's most important languages and this country's second most important language (just edging out ebonics).

-- Lars (larsguy@yahoo.com), May 04, 2001.

A Spanish-speaking friend listened to Dumbya's speech, and he said it didn't sound quite right. It sounded as though Dumbya's speech writers had typed out the pronunciations of the words, instead of the actual words themselves.

For example, they take a phrase such as "Buenos Dias" and they type it out as "Bway-nohs DEE-ahs" so that Dumbya won't screw up the pronunciation, but it just doesn't sound right unless you are comfortable speaking Spanish.

Clearly this was just a feeble attempt by Dumbya to pretend that he actually gives a shit about minorities. Also, he probably preferred the idea as opposed to attempting to speak English because the people would be more forgiving if he butchers a foreign language than if he butchers our own. I won't be suprised if he starts to do all of his speeches in Spanish, as a clever way to conceal his obvious brain damage.

-- (Senor Dumbya's burrito @ missing. a few beans), May 06, 2001.