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You are here: Home / Elections / Election 2012 / But he never spoke Spanish to me

But he never spoke Spanish to me

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Interesting story:

Mitt Romney’s campaign took a hard line with the Spanish-language network Univision, making last-minute demands in the run-up to last week’s town hall that helped insure his success in the forum, sources familiar with the broadcast told BuzzFeed.

When the Republican took his place Wednesday night in the first of two back-to-back candidate forums televised on the mega-network, he was greeted by an adoring, raucous crowd that cheered his every word, and booed many of the moderators’ questions. The next night, President Obama was treated to stone cold silence from the audience as he was aggressively grilled on his lackluster immigration record.

[….]

In any case, Romney’s team was allowed to bus in rowdy activists from around southern Florida in order to fill the extra seats at their town hall.

Reader Interactions

94Comments

  3. 3.

    Anya

    I watched bits of it and I don’t think the President “was treated to stone cold silence from the audience.” Also, the president does very well answering tough questions. He doesn’t wimp out like Romney. So, I am not sure WTF is BuzzFeed talking about.

  5. 5.

    arguingwithsignposts

    making last-minute demands in the run-up to last week’s town hall that helped insure his success in the forum, sources familiar with the broadcast told BuzzFeed.

    Yeah, EVERYBODY is talking about how awesome Romney was “winning” the Univision forum.

  6. 6.

    Or something like that.Suffern Ace

    When the debates take place, I wonder if they plan to stock the halls as well. If there’s one thing we learned from those primary debates about those crowds, it’s that they expect their red meat and will slit the throat of any sacred cow to get it.

  7. 7.

    mamayaga

    According to this link, posted by gnomedad in the previous thread, Univision’s ground rules asked for the audience to hold applause, etc. Obama’s supporters complied; Romney’s did not.

  8. 8.

    The Ancient Randonneur

    So you are a Joe Ely fan? Props to you. I’ve been a fan for over 30 years.

    Romney is a thin-skinned patrician, and the secret Kenyan/Commie/Muslim is able to walk in front a crowd and answer a few questions. I am shocked I tells ya!

  9. 9.

    Arm The Homeless

    Let ’em.

    I am watching the GOP stock in FL drop like a rock. it’s going to be a tough race here, but I feel even more confident in a win in the state. OFA is in full swing here, but more importantly they are sending the canvassers out of our little island of blue into red, but poor counties, and not just those counties with high minority populations.

  13. 13.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist and Fact Checker

    Maybe I’m getting to Pauline Kaelish, everyone I know agrees with me!, but I am genuinely baffled that Romney’s almost visible sense of “The rule don’t apply to me! I am Willard Romney!” entitlement isn’t off-putting to the white-working-class-males who are the only hope Willard ever had, and are pretty much the only reason Republicans are able to rewrite the rules so that Willard and his fellow Masters of the Universe can ignore them. Do the Howie Carr listeners who are afraid of the snooty lady perfesser from Harvard think Mike Bloomberg is hosting Manhattan fundraisers for Scottie Brown because of his deep concern for the middle class?

    Also, too, I was in the car a lot this week, getting my political junkie fix (I am so sucked in already) on sat radio, and MSNBC was concern-trolling the hell out of “Obama’s lackluster record on immigration reform”. For fuck’s sake, he did what he could without Congress. If I were a billionaire, I think I’d buy up a bunch of air time and just run that Schoolhouse Rock how a bill becomes a law till you heard people on the bus and in the grocery store unconsciously humming the song.

  17. 17.

    BGinCHI

    If Obama is “lackluster” on immigration what does that make the Republicans?

    Shit-stained? Covered in boils?

    It’s relative and there is a context, dumb-fuck media dipshits.

  18. 18.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist and Fact Checker:
    Nobody likes Romney, but ‘the rules don’t apply to me’ is a sentiment a very large portion of the Republican base likes. It’s not a rational, issue thing. The GOP has cultivated the vote of the kind of assholes who go ballistic if a dog poops on their lawn, but never clean up after their own dog when they take it for a walk. Alcoholics, abusers, narcissists – they see this kind of behavior in GOP politicians and feel in their gut ‘That person is like me, and will make sure I get to be as big an asshole as I want.’

  21. 21.

    Teddy's Person

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist and Fact Checker: This provides some insight to why people like Rmoney appeal to white-working-class-males.

    “Socialism never took root in America because the poor see themselves not as an exploited proletariat but as temporarily embarrassed millionaires.” ~ John Steinbeck

  22. 22.

    WereBear

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist and Fact Checker: I am genuinely baffled that Romney’s almost visible sense of “The rule don’t apply to me! I am Willard Romney!” entitlement isn’t off-putting to the white-working-class-males who are the only hope Willard ever had

    This would be the “identity” school of voting, where you go for the candidate you most want to be like or date.

    You’d think it would be the young hip guy the ladies find sexy (trust me, they do) but he’s black. So they go for the Sugar Daddy who can buy anything he wants!

  23. 23.

    Bort

    The big story I saw from this whole thing was how orange Mitt looked. Congrats to the Romney campaign for winning the news cycle!

  24. 24.

    Or something like that.Suffern Ace

    @TooManyJens: They made a big show this week about how he’s trying to court Hispanic voters by appearing at the chamber of commerce and on Univision. It seemed kind of late to me. “now that I have the nomination, i’ll do outreach.”

  26. 26.

    TaMara (BHF)

    Just got back from running a quick errand. In between the Democrat signs in my neighborhood (and one Romney sign) there is an orange Defeat Obama sign in a yard. Not elect Romney, no Romney visible anywhere, not even on their car, only that defeat BO sign. I think that says it all.

  27. 27.

    Chris

    @Teddy’s Person:

    “Socialism never took root in America because the poor see themselves not as an exploited proletariat but as temporarily embarrassed millionaires.” ~ John Steinbeck

    The fact that there was never an official hereditary aristocracy in America like there was in Europe (even if in practice the plantation owners and robber barons often amounted to the same thing) meant that class conflict based theories were never going to appeal here to the extent that they did in Europe. Over here, the hereditary status thing was always race – and that puts a lot more people on “the right side of the tracks” than the aristocracy/third estate divide did in Europe. Toss in high levels of religious feelings and the attendant dislike for “godless” communism…

  28. 28.

    Hill Dweller

    Even with a rigged forum, Romney still f’d it up by wearing enough spray tan/bronzer to make the hosts look like Scandinavians.

  29. 29.

    ding dong

    Has Mittens ever done anything with success, completely honestly and ethically without help from his parents? I seriously doubt it. Not in church ,not the Olympics,not at Bain, not in school. Nowhere.

  30. 30.

    different-church-lady

    Wow, he hit a hundred point bumper on the pinball table when he’s about 250k away from a free game.

    So, now he’ll lose the Hispanic vote by 42 points, whereas before the forum he probably would have lost the Hispanic vote by, oh, I dunno, 42 points.

  32. 32.

    Elisabeth

    Romney also initially refused to come out when introduced because he’d only agreed to give the forum 35 minutes and the host was apparently early.

    (FWIW, POTUS agreed to a full hour.)

  35. 35.

    Ben Franklin

    Over here, the hereditary status thing was always race

    @Chris:

    We have Royal Envy in the States, but take pride in our ‘Classless’ culture.

    But then there’s that American Idol thing.

  36. 36.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist and Fact Checker

    Yeah, my brain gets that it’s The Tribalism, but my gut keeps rolling its eyes and saying “Oh come on, they can not be that fucking stupid.”

    Also, too, fuck Univision for letting Willard rewrite the rules.

  39. 39.

    Anoniminous

    @Teddy’s Person:

    There are a lot of reasons “S-word” never took root in the US. The Steinbeck quote is one. There was also the dwindling away to nothing of the ‘home-grown’ Left, the violent reaction by the Right and the Ruling Class, the milquetoast “Gomperized” Union movement, the gradual awakening to what the Bolshevik Dictatorship of the Proletariat meant in practice, and more interest in faction fighting than the nuts-and-bolts of building a political party are some others.

  40. 40.

    Chris

    @Teddy’s Person:

    Adding to this – I think the “failure of socialism in America” theme is a little overdone sometimes.

    Yeah, our officially named Communist and Socialist parties didn’t get as far as they did in France or Italy. But between organized labor in the cities, rural populism W. J. Bryan or Huey Long style, and even the more moderate calls for reform and regulation, economic populism wasn’t exactly weak in the United States. And it ultimately effected a lot of changes in the system, even if that’s been written out of the history books today.

    Even today class-consciousness isn’t gone – working-class whites are still more likely to vote Democrat than their middle and upper class counterparts, and have become more so since the movement conservative takeover of the party.

  42. 42.

    General Stuck

    Willard hasn’t gotten the memo yet, explaining the fact we live in a digital nano second world, where everything gets reported, including his hissy fit shenanigans for peeps to give him dear leader props.

    Maybe Ryan could have showed up to calmly talk down to the messicans, and promise to put port-0-potties on the cattle trucks when their undocumented relatives are dumped south of the Rio Grande. Maybe put a voucher care spin on it to, to show how in the end, it is all for their own good.

  43. 43.

    JayJohnstone

    So is this the one tactical advantage the Romney has been able to achieve the entire campaign? LOL!!!

    You go Mitt. Maybe you will have another 1/2 of a sorta good day next month.

  44. 44.

    Matt McIrvin

    This is the first I’ve heard anyone even say that Romney’s appearance was successful, or that Obama’s was unsuccessful. Maybe I’m too deep in the echo chamber.

  45. 45.

    Sly

    @Frankensteinbeck:

    Nobody likes Romney, but ‘the rules don’t apply to me’ is a sentiment a very large portion of the Republican base likes. It’s not a rational, issue thing. The GOP has cultivated the vote of the kind of assholes who go ballistic if a dog poops on their lawn, but never clean up after their own dog when they take it for a walk.

    You know that guy in the office who constantly tells everyone that the whole business would fall apart if not for them, but in any rationally run business would be the first one to be fired when cost-cutting was required? That’s the conservative base; deluded into believing they are the Truly Indispensable Men without whom the whole of civilization would crumble into ruin, when in reality they’re about as useless as tits on a bull.

  46. 46.

    Chris

    @Sly:

    In addition to agreeing with everything you just said, I am totally stealing that expression you capped off the paragraph with.

  47. 47.

    Tara the Antisocial Social Worker

    Mitt spent hours rehearsing:

    “Las companias como Univision son personas tambien, mis amigos.”

    Probably written on his hand.

  49. 49.

    General Stuck

    More news from The Drool Cup Society.

    Yesterday, when speaking via video to the AARP, President Obama said, “But what I’m not going to do, as a matter of principle, is to slash benefits or privatize Social Security and suddenly turn it over to Wall Street.”

    but but but

    Yet last year, during the budget ceiling debate, President Obama said he’d be up for cutting Social Security.

    LOL, it is taking them a year to figure out these revelations from the post-mortem of last years debt ceiling deal. To which the Weekly Standard wizards ponder.

    Did Obama Mislead on Social Security Cuts?

    We Obots like to think of it as punked, pawned, bamboozled, fooled, etc etc… But you can call it what you want.

  52. 52.

    Hill Dweller

    @Matt McIrvin: It isn’t you. Obama was anything but unsuccessful.

    The hosts were certainly harder on the President, and the audience’s questions were tougher, but he was very good. I got the impression the audience had more admiration for Obama after it was over because he handled the questions so well.

    Both Ryan and Romney are frauds.

  54. 54.

    WaterGirl

    Wasn’t it Bill O’Reilly who had a pre-show tantrum on tape, where he screamed something like “Fuck it! Let’s do this.”

    That’s what I have in my head as I read this story about Romney. What a fucking cheater. And I think Univision was absolutely wrong to let Romney get away with this. Wrong on both points : re-taping the intro and busing in outside people.

  55. 55.

    arguingwithsignposts

    @Hill Dweller: It is always easier to be tough on someone who has an actual record than it is to be tough on someone who has only a bunch of vague campaign soundbites.

  56. 56.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist and Fact Checker

    Watching Bill Maher from last night. It’s embarrassing as an American that Roger Hedgecock would have been mayor of a major American city (San Diego).

  57. 57.

    scav

    Never confuse vacuous noise and staged volume for actual respect or results. The cheerleaders don’t actually win the game on their own.

  58. 58.

    J.D. Rhoades

    The big story I saw from this whole thing was how orange Mitt looked.

    My first thought was, “Jesus, the make up person must have a relative who’s a teacher or on disability or something. Because whoever he or she was, they really fucked Mitt over.” .

  59. 59.

    cat48

    The president did well, as usual. His appt started at 2:10pm in the afternoon & I watched all of it. The audience seemed friendly & applauded well. Didn’t know he had FAILED until now. Jorge Ramos was aggressive but I wasn’t surprised by it. He seems to think a promise is a promise, regardless whether the global financial system is imploding or not. Obviously, the prez did not scare people enough when the first 6 months about the tenuous financial system; but he was buzy holding it up I guess…….

    Coppins is a Stenographer for the Rombot Campaign if you hadn’t noticed by now!!

  61. 61.

    Cmm

    Here’s how successful the whole Univision thing was for Mitt: I am at the junkie level of following politics right now, and all I knew about was the bad makeup thing. I didn’t know it was an audience forum, thought it was just an interview. I didn’t know Obama did a corresponding appearance. I didn’t know Mitt was supposed to have been more “successful” based on audience response. All I knew about was the one rather hilarious picture. Until all the behind the music stuff dropped today, anyway. Good job, Mitt!

    Maybe Obama got tougher questions also because those who were there to see him thought there was actually some use in interacting with him, whereas between the hopelessness of the campaign, the thorough disdain of the R’s in general for the Latino community, and the stacking of the audience, no one thought there was any point in asking tougher questions of Mitt? Or maybe they were afraid to try to talk because they were so close to busting up at the makeup job…

  62. 62.

    piratedan

    @General Stuck: i thought that was in return for increased taxes on the wealthy a reduction in defense and some needed infrastructure spending but they chickened out… kind of like a quid pro quo of i’ll touch my sacred cow if you’ll touch yours… they chickened out

  63. 63.

    Keith G

    Oooooh gosh.

    A campaign pushed limits and violated (consequence-less) rules to make candidate look better. This story is of little interest and less outrage. It’s a dickish move, but you are likely to see worse behavior with city council races.

  65. 65.

    cat48

    Also, I forgot that Rombot also said ILLEGAL ALIENS at least once while on camera. His souped up audience might have liked that, but on twitter & the next day, offense at this was taken by Latinos. I’m sure he’ll get the Cuban vote, but the younger Cubans voted for Obama last time, as well as the Puerto Ricans. Last time I looked, Rombot was getting 30% of the Florida Latinos & the rest went to Obama.

    His makeup & the slur is what I’ve read about Rombot so far.

  66. 66.

    General Stuck

    @piratedan:

    they chickened out

    Well yea, they chickened out. What with Grover and his electoral meat cleaver lurking about. They thought in their 2010 magic bubble win of a mid term, they were both entitled to and certain the Kenyan Usurper would bow down under the GOP masser lash, and they could get what they wanted without giving up anything. Didn’t work out that way.

  67. 67.

    WhoopTDu

    Well there was this mention from Sep 20.on Twitter

    Ana Navarro ‏@ananavarro
    Did anyone else @Univision Forum notice moderators did intro twice? 1st mentioned Romney given 35 mins, Obama 1hr. 2nd time no mention. Humm

  68. 68.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist and Fact Checker

    @trollhattan: If I had been following Tweety’s for a couple of years, I’d be his biggest fan. Even as probably the most prominent media figure to oppose the Iraq War, he was still such pathetic fanboy for the Flightsuit Dummy of Sunny Nobility. It’s funny to me to watch him slobber over Bill Clinton the way he slobbered over Dubya, remembering him all but sobbing on TeeVee over what That Man had done to the White House, “the PEOPLE’S HOUSE!” The name Tweety comes, not just from the hair that changes hues like 25 y.o hipster chick’s, but from the transformation he underwent with his rage-o-holism over the blow jobs (there was a Tweety and Sylvester cartoon in which a mad scientist transformed little Tweetybird into a giant hulking monster, for those who don’t know that factoid)

  70. 70.

    Chris

    @WaterGirl:

    Wasn’t it Bill O’Reilly who had a pre-show tantrum on tape, where he screamed something like “Fuck it! Let’s do this.”

    I’ve thrown tantrums like that, but usually at my computer or other machines. I try not to direct them at actual human beings who are probably doing their best to help me out.

  71. 71.

    IowaOldLady

    his success in the forum

    By some definition of “success.”

    He bussed in supporters and they cheered him.

    Who’s fooling whom?

  72. 72.

    jeremy

    @General Stuck: Well the president came out in 2011 and said there will be no endorsement of raising the retirement age or slashing benefits. He said it time and again but some people did not listen. Also the so called debt deal that Boehner walked out on had no cuts to Social Security benefits or Medicare benefits. Just cuts to payments to providers,cuts to defense, and other cuts.

  73. 73.

    Randy P

    Anybody know where on Univision I might find coverage of the candidate forums and get a sample of Spanish comments? Not sure if my Spanish is up to it but I’m curious.

  74. 74.

    LanceThruster

    @WereBear:

    A female coworker likes Mitt a lot and when I elaborated on the things I thought were wrong with him, including making $25 million a year on investemnts alone and crying about his tax burden, she could only come up with, “You’re just jealous”.

  75. 75.

    Mark S.

    Aside from the bronze skin, the only thing I read about the appearance was that Mitt refused 4 times to answer whether he would support the DREAM Act and that he would offer no details on what he would do about illegal immigration. I didn’t read anything about him hitting a home run.

  76. 76.

    Applejinx

    @Gindy51: Gosh.
    That must be just what it’s supposed to be- secret footage of Mormon rituals.

    Because it’s amazingly, mind-rottingly boring with (to my mind) little offensive about it unless you get hives at ‘patriarchy’ or the idea of Jesus Sekrit Club with a pretend Jesus running through an elaborate series of code-signs.

    In a white suit. Gotta wear the white suits, I guess.

    If these people weren’t giving gays such expensive hell I’d totally be fine with letting them do their thing with their awesome voiceovers and fancy white suits. IF they weren’t doing political damage and harming people I like, where’s the harm in it?

    I guess the fundies might get a little upset, though.

  78. 78.

    LD50

    So basically Romney bussed in a bunch of Miami Cubans to convince Hispanics that Hispanics love the Republican party.

  79. 79.

    General Stuck

    @jeremy:

    He’s been saying it since the beginning of time, or at least since his Allah powered manger floated the Indian Ocean on its way to Maui.

  83. 83.

    beth

    Will they be able to pull this crap at the debates? As I remember, the audience usually follows the instructions to keep quiet during them. Will this be the year we hear “you lie” coming from the audience? Will the moderators be able to handle the crowd?

  84. 84.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @jeremy:
    This is the 11-dimensional chess in action. Obama offered the GOP a compromise that was exactly what they’d technically asked for, but rigged so they didn’t get what they really wanted. It would have been okay if they’d accepted it, but as predicted they refused and their tantrum made them look like such idiots he was able to secure better terms later. The man is an incredible negotiator, and step one is to create an illusion of friendliness and willingness to compromise.

  85. 85.

    Hal

    @LanceThruster:

    A female coworker likes Mitt a lot

    Wow. You actually know someone who likes Romney and doesn’t just hate Obama? You’re co-worker should be studied in a lab.

  86. 86.

    SectarianSofa

    @TaMara (BHF):
    Yeah, that’s how it is here in North-of-Dallas. I’ve seen Obama stickers on the cars, almost no Romney ones, but there is enough of the anti-Obama sentiment I’m probably not putting a sticker on my car this time around. In ’08, I got too many assholes playing games on the highway, and it feels worse this time around. Not as many Hummers driving around, but lots of people who wish they were driving them over people like me.

  87. 87.

    SectarianSofa

    @TaMara (BHF):
    Yeah, that’s how it is here in North-of-Dallas. I’ve seen Obama stickers on the cars, almost no Romney ones, but there is enough of the anti-Obama sentiment I’m probably not putting a sticker on my car this time around. In ’08, I got too many assholes playing games on the highway, and it feels worse this time around. Not as many Hummers driving around, but lots of people who wish they were driving them over people like me.

  89. 89.

    dance around in your bones

    @trollhattan:

    I agree! Hedgecock is a dick, and Tweety handed it to him.

    I know, because I lived in SD for many years, and Roger Hedgecock was always a dick.

    (No offense to actual dicks, which I am kinda fond of).

  90. 90.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @burnspbesq:

    that makes about as much sense as a “Don’t Californicate Colorado” sign in the middle of Highlands Ranch

    Apparently California is a socialist Hell Hole because we have Jerry Brown again. Must be wingnut code talking for not having a white majority.

  91. 91.

    Cmm

    @beth:
    I got to attend the 1992 VP debate at GA Tech. One thing I noticed then was that while Gore and Adm. stockdale’s (remember him?) supporters were quiet, Quayle’s were not and he would smile and encourage them when the camera was not on him.

  92. 92.

    Sparrowgal

    @Or something like that.Suffern Ace: Coming to this thread pretty late, but I just wanted to say that I attended the Hofstra U. debate back in 2008, and tickets were apportioned to current students and staff by lottery. This year, as I understand it, the university president, professors and other staff have agreed to take themselves out of the running for primo tickets, and will watch at a campus simulcast in order to give students the maximum number of tickets. There’s no chance they will be running around looking for ‘fillers’!

    As an alumnae, I’m trying to get tickets to this simulcast event again this year. In 2008, it was a blast…almost like watching the event at a house party. Unlike the student audience, which had to remain silent, we cut up, hissed, booed, cheered, and generally felt like we were part of history. Hopefully, I can attend again this year with my gang of Obamanaics, and we can scream and giggle at the big screen.

  94. 94.

    Brachiator

    Also, too, fuck Univision for letting Willard rewrite the rules

    Much ado about nothing. As Rachel Maddow pointed out in a recent news cast, Univision made the most of their opportunit to get to interview Romney, knowing that campaign events the GOP will allow with Latino media is going to be rare.

    And unlike the lame ass mainstream media, the Univision reporter asked tough follow up questions.

    And all the available follow up indicates that Romney is not convincing Latinos that he is anything other than a useless gabacho.

    Also, I imagine that desperate Romney supporters are over emphasizing the applause here to attempt to distract people from Ryan getting relentlessly booed during his recent speech to seniors.

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