"Somos todos americanos"
In those three words you can resume Obama's mayor speech on his policy toward the Americas and the Caribbean.
Besides the excellent proposals, and the wise analysis, it's really refreshing to see the next President of the United States treat its neighbors as his equals, as partners, not looking down upon them. One of the main problems Latin America has with Bush is not his policies, or the war in Iraq (ok, we have major issues with those as well), but his total lack of deference towards the Region. You could say that, except for Colombia and Mexico, the Bush Administration has completely ignored Latin America.
You can read the full speech here.
But other that the brilliance of his plan, it's the brilliance of his timing. In a one-two punch, he gives Cuban American voters in Florida major news, and tomorrow he will be in Puerto Rico a week before the primary, where I hope he expands on his plans!
Si Se Puede, indeed!
Primary news from Puerto Rico below.
Got on the Rec List! For more background on PR check out my older diaries.
DISCLAIMER: I am a politically active Puertorrican, and a pro-commonwealth supporter. I have worked in plenty of campaigns for the PDP, and I plan on supporting Gov. Acevedo Vilá on his reelection bid. I will try to keep my positions as neutral as possible, regarding the PR status debate. But I cannot make any promises!!! ;)
For more details on Puerto Rico, it´s political system and controversies, and news from the primary, you can see my older diaries here.
UPDATE VIII: Obama's first interview with a PR local news is up.
UPDATE VII: For those of you interested on the possible voter turnout in PR, MyDD just posted a good article by the New York Observer. Mr. Manuel Alvarez thinks a turnout of 600,000 is more realistic. I agree.
UPDATE VI: Hillary has landed.
UPDATE V: The New York Times covers Obama's trip. They also have his reaction about Hillary's RFK remarks.
UPDATE IV: Both newscast started with Obama's visit. Hillary has not yet arrived, and he had the first 10 minutes to himself. The visuals from the San Juan "caminata" looked great. There was also a great shot of Obama trying to dance reggaeton. Looked good. The visuals are not online, yet, though tere are some pictures in the link above. There is a video of a protest by the Independence Party. Just a picket line with a couple dozen demonstrators.
Right now, Univision is interviewing the DNC electoral commissioner. He is the staffer in charge of the election running smoothly. He made a public call for volunteers to serve as "funcionarios de colegio" or vote counters during the primary. Like I said in my previous entry, each campaign must recruit about 7,000 funcionarios, to assure that their votes are counted. He says progress has been made, but that problems area do exist. This is important, for I doubt that the campaigns will be able to recruit all the "funcionarios" they need. The State Election Commission did a trial run of the system today, and everything worked fine.
UPDATE III: Just got back. Could not see Barack...oh well. I heard a radio interview on my way back. He was asked about RFK, and he dismiss it as an honest mistake by Clinton. Gonna watch the news now and see the coverage.
UPDATE II: I will be leaving now, I´m gonna try and sneak into the PDP meeting and see BO in person. If I´m able to outsmart the secret service, I´ll give you an update in the afternoon.
UPDATE: The first AP wire piece on Obama is out. It highlights his promise to build a new veteran´s hospital in the island.
Now that the candidates are here in Puerto Rico, the primary gets two front pages, El Nuevo Día and El Vocero. El Nuevo Día's headline is "A Todo Tren Obama y Hillary", an expression that can best be translated as Obama and Hillary, Full Speed Ahead.
The main article in END is titlted, is "Ante los Ojos del Mundo", which means In front of the world's eyes. The article focus on the international media attention that Puerto Rico is getting because of the primary. It also, FINALLY, publishes the candidates schedules. Obama kicks off at 10 am with a meeting with veteran's at a local university. Then at 11:30 am he will head a "caminata" through Old San Juan. A caminata is a march with supporters following the candidate. At 2:00 pm he will hold a private meeting the with Governor and some of his followers, at the Governor's PDP headquarters. The Governor said that this meeting will include around 50 party leaders, and it seems to be about getting out the vote. Then, END says sources close to the campaign say Obama will move to the NPP (pro statehood) HQ, and meet with the pro-statehood leaders helping in his campaign. No time is given for the meeting. The article also says that Obama is expected to return during the week, as he has been confirmed as a speaker at the annual S.E.I.U. convention, that starts on Thursday at the Puerto Rico Convention Center.
On the other hand, Hillary arrives in the west coast of the island, in Aguadilla to be exact. At 5:00 pm she has a forum called "Solutions for Puerto Rico". It seems she has no more public appearances today. Tomorrow she will visit the south of the island, going to Peñuelas in the afternoon, and then attending a meeting with the Cuban community in the island during the evening, at Isla Verde, this seems to be her only public appearance in San Juan. On Monday, Hillary will attend a meeting sponsored by "Public Servants for Hillary", an organization of public sector unions that has been making all the heavy lifting for her campaign here. The second article is an interview with José La Luz, the union leader in charge of Public Servants for Hillary. He says that Hillary will promise on Monday to dramatically increase the availability of federal funds to government programs in the island.
On its politics page, END also has two articles about the campaign. The first one "Obama: Hay que enxtender "una mano" a América Latina", which means Obama: We Must Give Latin America a Hand. It covers Obama's speech on Latin America. The secondarticle is about Hillary's stament supporting the presidential vote for Puerto Rico, and reactions by some PDP (pro autonomy) leaders rejecting it. They equate presidential vote with statehood.
El Vocero's page seems to be down. But it is important to note that there is an ad for a poll to be published on Thursday. I don't know if it will include the presidential primary, but I guess it will. If I'm able to get a hard copy of the newspaper, I'll update during the day.
Primera Hora has an article with the candidates schedules and another one detailing the expenditures by State Election Commission on the primaries. The SEC has budgeted 2.6 million for the whole affair. Nothing on the recruitment of volunteers to serve as vote counters.
Yesterday, the second part of the interview Hillary gave to a local station aired. She was grilled by the reporters on her husband's actions towards Puerto Rico manufacturing during the 90's. US companies that established here had tax-exempt status and could repatriate their earnings to the mainland without paying federal taxes, under Sec. 936 of the US Tax Code. Sec. 936 had always been a major roadblock to statehood, because if PR were to be admitted as the 51st state, the other 50 states would not allow us to have that competitive advantage. So in the 90's, our pro statehood Governor and his pro-statehood delegate in Congress mounted a huge campaign in Congress and the White House to have the 936 eliminated. And they succeeded. When asked about it, Hillary says it was not her husband, but the Republican Congress that eliminated 936. False. The budget submitted by the WH did not contain Sec. 936, it was dead before it even made it to the Hill. The net result: We have lost over 40,000 manufacturing jobs in the last 10 years (much like Ohio, Michigan, and other manufacturing powerhouses).
She also refuses to comment on the Governor's recent indictment, and his claim of political persecution. She ends the interview pledging to stay in the race until one of the candidates has the majority of all delegates.
UPDATE: There is also a video of the Governor reaffirming his support of Obama, flanked by some mayors of the island. The press conference was not called to answer questions on the primary, so don´t assume all those mayors are supporting BO. The piece also highlights Obama´s Latin America speech.
Will try to update during the day.