THE NATION - Democrats court the Latino vote, en español
Democrats condemned divisive immigration rhetoric and touted issues important to many Latinos during a televised debate Sunday on a leading Spanish-language network in which their remarks were translated live from English.
The debate, billed as a historic first, provided the candidates an opportunity to address America's estimated 17 million Latinos of voting age in what is the native language of many of them.
Seven of the eight Democratic candidates participated in the Univision debate at the University of Miami, eager to court a Latino constituency, which could play a pivotal role in battleground states such as Florida. (Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. of Delaware, who recently returned from an Iraq trip, did not take part.)
On the Republican side, only Sen. John McCain of Arizona accepted Univision's invitation to a GOP presidential debate for next week, forcing the network to postpone it. The sharp difference in participation, political observers suggest, underscores Republican candidates' fears about saying the wrong thing on immigration, an issue that inflames the conservative base.
Democratic officials portrayed Republicans' decisions to skip a Univision debate as proof that only one party cared about the Latino vote. But during Sunday's 90-minute forum, the candidates largely avoided criticism of the GOP -- or one another.
"It's a great honor to be here, an extraordinary privilege," former Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina said when asked whether attending the debate represented a political risk.
As the debate got going, it quickly became clear why Republicans might be wary of addressing the Univision forum: One of the first questions the Democrats faced was whether they would approve Spanish as a second national language.
Rep. Dennis J. Kucinich of Ohio answered the question clearly: yes. Sen. Christopher J. Dodd of Connecticut dodged the question, speaking in generalities about the importance of Latino Americans and of English as the nation's common language.
On the volatile immigration issue, the questions were no less pointed.
Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York and Barack Obama of Illinois, both of whom voted to erect a wall along the Mexican border, were asked why it was OK there but not on the border with Canada.
