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You are here: Home / Past Elections / Election 2008 / Obama In Spanish

Obama In Spanish

by John Cole|  October 23, 200811:11 pm| 56 Comments

This post is in: Election 2008

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Obama cut an ad in Spanish:

No idea what he said, but Ben Smith reports the following:

Marrero says Obama’s pronunciation isn’t bad. “Bush’s was worse and he actually half-spoke the language,” she writes.

Which is funny, because Bush only half-speaks English, too.

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56Comments

  1. 1.

    MikeJ

    October 23, 2008 at 11:16 pm

    He does do a good job, but all of the takes are short. The longest he speaks at any one time is about 8 seconds.

    Beats the hell out of my nonexistent skillz though.

  2. 2.

    Comrade Stuck

    October 23, 2008 at 11:21 pm

    HMM, Where did he learn such fluent Spanish? It is a furrin tongue you know. Did his mother teach him and where is she REALLY from. Obama must clear up these troubling questions and if he can’t produce a Mexican birth certificate, then he must be hiding something. You know, he is more brownish than blackish and what about those reported photos of him eating a Taco. They will be produced by Senor Johnsonia next week at 9 AM, or maybe the next week.

  3. 3.

    Comrade The Other Steve

    October 23, 2008 at 11:29 pm

    Joe McCain! For the WIN!

    A 911 tape, reportedly of Sen. John McCain (web|news|bio) ‘s brother Joe, could prove controversial for the McCain camp since the call was not for an emergency, but rather to complain about being stuck in traffic.

    The call came into Alexandria’s 911 system on October 21.

    Operator: 911 state your emergency

    Caller: It’s not an emergency, but do you know why on one side at the damn drawbridge of 95 traffic is stopped for 15 minutes and yet traffic’s coming the other way?

    Operator: Sir, are you calling 911 to complain about traffic? (pause)

    Caller: "(Expletive) you." (caller hangs up)

  4. 4.

    Comrade The Other Steve

    October 23, 2008 at 11:31 pm

    It get’s better…

    HE CALLED BACK!

    But that wasn’t all. McCain apparently called 911 again to complain about the message the operator just left him, warning him such use of 911 is criminal.

    Caller: Somebody gave me this riot act about the violation of police.

    Operator: Did you just call 911 in reference to this?

    Caller: Yeah.

    Operator: 911 is to be used for emergencies only not just because you’re sitting in traffic.

  5. 5.

    A la lanterne les aristos

    October 23, 2008 at 11:32 pm

    Not bad.

    But the true test of Spanish-language skillz is how one pronounces ‘una cerveza, por favor’

  6. 6.

    Fulcanelli

    October 23, 2008 at 11:48 pm

    Looks like Sarah Palin’s Russian neighbors have been looking back at her.

    Courtesy of the GOS.

    /выиграть

  7. 7.

    Brian J

    October 23, 2008 at 11:49 pm

    Since I’ll probably forget to post this tomorrow, I’ll post it now. Via Brad DeLong, a story in the Politico:

    I squeaked in just before the 7pm deadline to find two very frustrated poll workers and a line of a couple dozen people, due to problems with the computerized voting system not accepting people’s driver’s licenses. It was taking about 7-10 minutes per person just to get the computer to accept them as valid and to print out their ballot, causing very long delays.

    For me the most moving moment came when the family in front of me, comprising probably 4 generations of voters (including an 18 year old girl voting for her first time and a 90-something hunched-over grandmother), got their turn to vote. When the old woman left the voting booth she made it about halfway to the door before collapsing in a nearby chair, where she began weeping uncontrollably. When we rushed over to help we realized that she wasn’t in trouble at all but she had not truly believed, until she left the booth, that she would ever live long enough to cast a vote for an African-American for president. Anyone who doesn’t think that African-American turnout will absolutely SHATTER every existing record is in for a very rude surprise.

    There were about 20 people in front of me but remarkably not a single person left the room without voting over the 2 hours it took to get through the line.

    This is the sort of story that makes me think (a) Obama could be a socially transformative figure, (b) I am living in a very special period of history, and (c) Obama and the Democrats are going to absolutely demolish McCain and the Republicans come election day.

  8. 8.

    SamFromUtah

    October 23, 2008 at 11:51 pm

    Spanish, eh? Maybe it’s time for McWorse and all his little wizards to dust off some immigration-fear!

    Shit, they’ve been reprising every other wingnut hobbyhorse lately, why not make some baseless accusations and further alienate Hispanic people?

  9. 9.

    Comrade Mary, Would-Be Minion Of Bad Horse

    October 23, 2008 at 11:55 pm

    He does sound good in the body of the message, but the "approve of this message" tag sounds more awkward. Was that recorded earlier, maybe, before he got more fluent?

  10. 10.

    Octavian

    October 24, 2008 at 12:00 am

    "Barack Hussein Obama is going to turn our wonderfully white country into the United States of Mexico."

    –someone at the Corner, tomorrow.

  11. 11.

    bwaage

    October 24, 2008 at 12:03 am

    Well, that settles it, we have to elect John McCain. Our country has a proud tradition of ridiculously embarassing presidential brothers, with the exception of 2000, when we mistakenly elected the the family fuck-up instead of his brother.

  12. 12.

    dorkboy

    October 24, 2008 at 12:03 am

    You know who else speaks Spanish?

    Fidel Castro, Hugo Chavez, Che Guevara, Mexicans, Michael Dukakis, that dog from the Taco Bell commercials (actually that was pretty cool).

    I expect to see an expose on how NObama is pro-latino and anti-American post haste!

  13. 13.

    blogreeder

    October 24, 2008 at 12:06 am

    He does do a good job, but all of the takes are short. The longest he speaks at any one time is about 8 seconds.

    That’s because he’s parroting it.

  14. 14.

    oh really

    October 24, 2008 at 12:06 am

    No idea what he said

    It’s not that complicated.

    He said:

    I want to take all the money away from the rich gringos and give it to illegal aliens. Don’t bother learning English or getting a green card, cuz I’m going to destroy this country as soon as I get elected…but I can’t do it without your help. So, call your local ACORN representative and find out how you can register to vote even though it’s completely illegal. Together we can bring down America and make a lot of money too.

    My Spanish is a little rusty, but this guy, umm, Rich Davis, I think was his name, assured me that the translation was accurate.

  15. 15.

    SamFromUtah

    October 24, 2008 at 12:10 am

    Which is funny, because Bush only half-speaks English, too.

    Why do you hate America?

    …sorry. I keep getting these flashbacks to 2003 today.

  16. 16.

    Delia

    October 24, 2008 at 12:14 am

    I’m waiting for Lou Dobbs’s head to explode.

  17. 17.

    Comrade Nikolita

    October 24, 2008 at 12:32 am

    It looks like a good ad. :)

    As for electronic voting, you guys should just use a pencil and paper. Faster and easier and pretty foolproof. Make an "x" for your choice, fold the paper, and drop it in the box.

  18. 18.

    Brandon

    October 24, 2008 at 12:33 am

    Rough translation

    "We share a dream:
    that hard work can help your family prosper
    that if you are sick, you can have affordable medical care
    that our children can have a great education, be they rich or poor.

    This is the american dream.

    I’m not asking for your vote, not only for me, or for the democrats,
    but to keep this dream alive for you, and for your children

    I’m Barack Obama, and I approve of this message"

  19. 19.

    stickler

    October 24, 2008 at 12:41 am

    Obama seems to talk the crazy moonbat language pretty well, so far as I can tell.

    But where does he stand on reconstructing our people’s community? Our unity, our loyalty, our willingness to defend our homeland?

    Fest steht und treu die Wacht, die Wacht am Rhein…

    Ahem. Sorry. No furrin speak here, no sirree. Move on.

  20. 20.

    KRK

    October 24, 2008 at 12:43 am

    He did one of these for the primary, too.

  21. 21.

    Funkhauser

    October 24, 2008 at 12:46 am

    I’m not asking for your vote, not only for me, or for the democrats,
    but to keep this dream alive for you, and for your children

    This part was good; the pronunciation was very smooth

    I’m Barack Obama, and I approve of this message

    This part was gringo.

    Oh, and Bush never really spoke Spanish. It was written into speeches and prepared for him. Really, it was awful.

  22. 22.

    KRK

    October 24, 2008 at 12:46 am

    It was for the P.R. primary: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eK-l_0jVtEU

  23. 23.

    Funkhauser

    October 24, 2008 at 12:47 am

    Screw you and the blockquotes you came in on.

  24. 24.

    DanJoaquinOz

    October 24, 2008 at 12:52 am

    I do speak Spanish (hence the name Joaquin) and I’d say Obama does very well. His accent is mild, his pronunciation is excellent and best of all, he gets the cadence of the language perfectly. Like all Latin languages Spanish has a very distinct music. Obama gets that aspect perfectly and that’s probably the hardest thing for non-Spanish speakers to master. It’s also clearly more than just "parroting" as someone above suggested. Watch Obama’s hands, he’s got the music of the language in him. Does the Senator play a musical instrument? In my experience musical ability and lingustic dexterity are often closely linked.

  25. 25.

    Martin

    October 24, 2008 at 12:52 am

    Meh, if McCain’s ads saying that Obama wasn’t on the side of immigrants because he didn’t support amnesty, guest worker programs, and so on didn’t cause Lou’s head to explode, then nothing will.

    I thought John King on Anderson Cooper was funny tonight. They had just gone over the SNL skit from this evening with the computer screen with the states and Anderson asked John if he was ever tempted to do anything like that. He joked that he should go move the mexican border for Lou Dobbs. Every now and then I get the sense that Lou is the butt of a lot of jokes around there.

  26. 26.

    Ecks

    October 24, 2008 at 1:09 am

    Well, that settles it, we have to elect John McCain. Our country has a proud tradition of ridiculously embarassing presidential brothers

    Isn’t Obama was supposed to have some half brother living in a hut in Africa or something? If we can confirm that in the next 2 weeks the only tension on election night will be if Obama hits five thirty eight exactly :)

    Bush only half-speaks English, too

    This was far more literally true of Canada’s ex PM Jean Chretien who was french Canadian but had this mild aphasia that lead to weirdly mangled syntax. People mistook him to be stupid at their own risk, but one of the standard lines on him was: "he’s very balanced. He speaks neither official language."

  27. 27.

    Common Sense

    October 24, 2008 at 1:22 am

    Jim Hightower had the immortal quote concerning Bush’s fluency in Spanish:
    "Oh Good. Now he can be bi-ignorant"

  28. 28.

    Warren Terra

    October 24, 2008 at 1:31 am

    Bwaage, you forget that, amazingly, George W. Bush isn’t the most embarassing Bush brother – there’s also Neil who is fully qualified as an Embarassing Presidential Brother. It’s just that Neil’s foulups, even the amazing Shanghai Prostitute Freebie Story, really had to struggle for attention what with his brother’s administration messing the whole country up.

    And the line about Bush half-speaking Spanish like he half-speaks English reminds me of a great line from the late, lamented Molly Ivins, referring to the declared intentions of a notably dimwitted Texas Governor to learn Spanish (not, sadly, Gov. Bush; Gov. Clayton Williams, iirc). The lines was: "Good, now he’ll be bi-ignorant."

  29. 29.

    blogreeder

    October 24, 2008 at 2:09 am

    Obama could be a socially transformative figure

    What the hell does that mean?

    Is "transformative" the new "diversity"? Will we have to take "transformative" classes at work now?

  30. 30.

    MikeJ

    October 24, 2008 at 2:25 am

    What the hell does that mean?

    It means that when people like you open your yap people will point and laugh.

  31. 31.

    blogreeder

    October 24, 2008 at 2:33 am

    @MikeJ
    I knew it, you don’t know what it means either.

  32. 32.

    bago

    October 24, 2008 at 3:32 am

    What do you mean?

  33. 33.

    Atanarjuat

    October 24, 2008 at 4:13 am

    It makes sense that Nobama is crooning in Spanish to woo those who find English as too burdensome a language to speak, much less learn — in the United States of America.

    (The fact that the Constitution is written in English is irrelevant to diehard multiculturalists.)

    Remember, Nobama is the hardcore liberal who had said the following:

    "Instead of worrying about whether immigrants can learn English, they will learn English. You need to make sure your child can speak Spanish."

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BZprtPat1Vk

    It makes one wonder if all the border patrol guards on the American-Mexican border will be pink-slipped enmasse should Nobama become President. Why bother securing the southern border if speaking English will become irrelevant, every one of us will be "re-educated" to speak Spanish, and illegal immigrants — sorry, "undocumented workers" — will be gifted driver’s licenses as an inalienable right?

    Now that’s multiculturalism you can believe in, pendejos!

    Country First.

  34. 34.

    El Cid

    October 24, 2008 at 5:23 am

    Blarg flup ewbl Mexicans arthix ‘Nobama’ lakagubl ENGLISH!!!

  35. 35.

    kid bitzer

    October 24, 2008 at 5:35 am

    yeah, to my ears he sounds *damned* good, as danjoaquinoz says above. like, if that was my mother tongue, i would feel like he was really talking to me, and really understood.

    for those who speak neither spanish nor english, here’s some help on the word "transformative".

    it’s an adjective, which means "capable of transforming; tending to transform".

    "transform" is a rough synonym for "change".

    so a "socially transformative figure" is someone who can change society.

    it’s not that hard, if you know english.

    if you don’t then maybe this will help. cambio: si, se puede.

  36. 36.

    boonagain

    October 24, 2008 at 5:55 am

    Hey, trolls,instead of bothering us, you really, really need to be out there working for McCain-seems he just now realized that Bush’s Presidency has been bad for the Country. That realization should help him a lot with his base.

  37. 37.

    Josh Hueco

    October 24, 2008 at 6:19 am

    And the Old Testament is written in Hebrew, so from now on the ofays should only talk about stoning gays and how the earth is 6,000 years old in the original language. They might also learn that YHWH ashwer YHWH means "I am that what I am" instead of DUH LORRRD-UHH!

  38. 38.

    BladeZero

    October 24, 2008 at 6:28 am

    Now that’s a guy you want meeting with other nations!

  39. 39.

    Caramon

    October 24, 2008 at 6:29 am

    I’m Spanish.

    Very nice effort from Obama. ‘pr’ looks to be the only sound where he really has a problem.

  40. 40.

    cleek

    October 24, 2008 at 6:34 am

    YHWH means "I am that what I am"

    praise be to Popeye

  41. 41.

    kommrade jakevich

    October 24, 2008 at 6:40 am

    @Josh Hueco: Or as Lewis Black says, they should use their own Bible (New Testament) and leave the Jewish Bible alone.

    And they can talk about forgiveness and turning the other cheek in Aramaic, Greek, … Ah, forget it. That’ll never happen.

  42. 42.

    Krista

    October 24, 2008 at 6:42 am

    Even if he had mangled the language, IMHO the fact that he gave it such an effort, and is really trying to reach out to all aspects of your society, is very heartening. I think this is a guy who sees people as people, not as "groups to suck up to", "groups to give lip service to" and "groups to ignore".

    (My apologies for ending the first two group names with prepositions. I tried writing it correctly, and it just looked really awkward.)

  43. 43.

    cleek

    October 24, 2008 at 7:25 am

    My apologies for ending the first two group names with prepositions

    no apologies necessary; it’s perfectly valid to do so.

  44. 44.

    kommrade jakevich

    October 24, 2008 at 7:43 am

    "This is the sort of English up with which I will not put".

  45. 45.

    Comrade Nixon Hailfire Palin

    October 24, 2008 at 7:44 am

    My apologies for ending the first two group names with prepositions. I tried writing it correctly, and it just looked really awkward.

    Can’t resist the Churchill quote here: "This is the sort of nonsense up with which I will not put."

  46. 46.

    Punchy

    October 24, 2008 at 7:46 am

    No Habla Espany’all.

    Cant wait to see Obitler cut one of these treasonous ads in goosestepping German.

  47. 47.

    Punchy

    October 24, 2008 at 7:52 am

    "This is the sort of English up with which I will not put".

    Another Grammar Nazi. Nice. You’re someone for whom I would vote. Your style is one for which I am familiar. This is something with which I would agree.

  48. 48.

    Nicole

    October 24, 2008 at 8:19 am

    He speaks Spanish with a strong Muslim accent.

  49. 49.

    El Cruzado

    October 24, 2008 at 8:55 am

    As another resident Spaniard, he gets an A for effort and a B for implementation. A verbe tense wrong somewhere and the cadence goes off in a couple places and a few things that sound odd but just because even after a few years living in the US I’m still not completely used to hispanic-american use of the language.

    But overall it sure beats most Spanish politicians speaking English (ex-president Aznar provokes irrepressible hilarity on me every time I hear him speaking English for some reason).

  50. 50.

    Comrade Stuck

    October 24, 2008 at 8:59 am

    My apologies for ending the first two group names with prepositions

    What’s a preposition? Is that like L Craig with crazy feet.

  51. 51.

    charlotte

    October 24, 2008 at 9:57 am

    Wow — I just LOVE seeing a candidate making this kind of effort! As a Brazilian-American, I speak Portuguese, but understand Spanish with ease. His pronunciation isn’t perfect but it’s very very good … and his cadences aren’t bad either. And here’s the main thing: He MADE the effort and looks relaxed and happy doing so. Si se puede and Sim, Podemos! Barack is the man!

    The matter of prepositions is one with which I am familiar. I think in writing something formal or bureaucratic it’s probably the way to go, no? But, heaven forbid that bloggers should have this rule thrust upon them … what’s the fun of that? Relaxe, pessoal … vamos numa boa!

  52. 52.

    Tzal

    October 24, 2008 at 10:01 am

    It’s pretty easy to learn another language while campaigning. If you are a genius. An evil genius.

  53. 53.

    Nylund

    October 24, 2008 at 10:15 am

    He does a good job. He sounds like an American speaking Spanish, but an American who is really trying to speak it properly. I’d think most Spanish speakers would be pleasantly surprised and would instantly recognize and appreciate his effort. This is how most native English speakers who speak solid Spanish (with an accent) end up sounding.

    As noted above, it was a bunch of small takes so he probably practiced and recorded one sentence at a time until he got it down pat.

    The "I am Barack Obama and I approve this message" part is a different story. It reminds me of when people have those language tapes and they try to repeat what they hear and totally butcher it. He doesn’t outright "butcher" it, but its not nearly as smooth as the rest of the commercial.

  54. 54.

    AdobeDragon

    October 24, 2008 at 11:03 am

    Bush speaks "Godfather Spanish." Which is to say, he sounds like he has a mouthful of cottonballs in his mouth when he speaks mangles Spanish.

    Obama did a pretty good job. As others have noted, the last bit is kind of ugly, but overall he seems to have a good ear for the language.

  55. 55.

    A la lanterne les aristos!

    October 24, 2008 at 12:08 pm

    ::waves to El Cruzado::

    Yo soy de Malaga :)

  56. 56.

    pseudonymous in nc

    October 24, 2008 at 12:25 pm

    The point about invoking the American Dream: healthcare, education, good jobs? Americans who are more comfortable with Spanish know that for their kids to be part of that deal, they’ll be speaking English. And that it’ll happen anyway for their kids. They’re not stupid.

    Every now and then I get the sense that Lou is the butt of a lot of jokes around there.

    And he has only himself to blame. He’s created a little nativist enclave for himself on CNN: all of his lead reporters and producers are pretty much confined to his hour of spittle-flecked fearmongering, and his contract gives him editorial control. Ever seen Kitty Pilgrim or Casey Wian show up on CNN outside of Dobbs O’Clock?

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