Slick willy in Puerto Rico
TheVoiceInside
Posts: 361
Here is a video of Bill Clinton here in Puerto Rico. This news probably didnt make it on to cnn so I thought some of you might enjoy this. Its in spanish but the pictures speak louder than words. Right now the federal goverment is in really hot water with alot of the people here bacause they just indited the governor on what seems to be a case of selective prosecution. Anyway Bill was down here campaining for his wife. and this is some of the love that he got.
http://wapa.tv/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=7020&Itemid=57&videonews=1
http://wapa.tv/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=7020&Itemid=57&videonews=1
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Please God let it be video of a wet T-shirt contest. Please God let it be video of a wet T-shirt contest. Please God let it be video of a wet T-shirt contest. Please God let it be video of a wet T-shirt contest. Please God let it be video of a wet T-shirt contest.
for the least they could possibly do
Sorry, I wish it were something like that.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/07/AR2008040702603.html?nav=rss_email/components
Bill Clinton Visits Puerto Rico, Rich in Culture and Delegates
BARCELONETA, Puerto Rico, April 7 -- The four sound trucks filed onto potholed streets at 8 o'clock Monday morning, weighed down by the 800-pound speakers rigged to their roofs. They drove past the pineapple plantations, past the black-sand beaches, past the multicolored tiendas downtown
All morning, the trucks blasted the same short message, as if repetition might make it more believable: "Sí! Bill Clinton está aquí!"
Yes, a few hours later, Bill Clinton did come to this farming town 1,200 miles from the U.S. mainland, bringing with him the 2008 Democratic presidential campaign. The former president walked into the humid courtyard of a university to a drumroll from boys banging on steel garbage cans, past security guards in Hawaiian shirts and women dancing to salsa music, to make the case for his wife, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton.
It may have been the first U.S. presidential campaign rally in Puerto Rican history, but more are sure to follow. On June 1, the U.S. commonwealth will hold a Democratic primary that will help determine 63 delegates -- more than the number awarded to 24 of the 50 states. About 2.5 million voters are eligible to participate in the primary, and both Hillary Clinton and her Democratic challenger, Sen. Barack Obama, are expected to visit the island to woo them.
The 4 million residents of Puerto Rico are not allowed to participate in the general election, so they plan to press their issues during their brief turn in the national spotlight. They want better health care, higher wages and a final determination of their murky status with the United States.
Most of all, they want to inject themselves into the national conversation -- a process that started with Bill Clinton traveling Monday to five events across the island. He never came here as president -- no U.S. president has visited in 45 years -- but he spoke Monday as though he may be back soon.
"You might actually determine this election," he told the crowd in Barceloneta. "If you vote for [Hillary] and give her a big margin, she'll be the nominee and she will always honor your support."
But on Monday, the culture gap between Clinton and Puerto Ricans, who were granted U.S. citizenship in 1917, sometimes seemed insurmountable. When Clinton walked into the rally in Barceloneta, he sat on a stage and listened as four local politicians introduced him in Spanish. One introducer, among 18 local politicians at the event, turned away from the microphone and looked back at Clinton, eager to interpret for him.
"When I say 'presidente,' " the mayor said, "that means I'm talking about you."
Clinton flashed a thumbs-up and smiled wanly, but he looked distracted during the Spanish speeches. Then he walked to the microphone, shielding his eyes against the 90-degree sun. He rattled off a thank-you list of Spanish names and mispronounced two of them.
As about 1,000 people crowded under white awnings to escape the heat, Clinton proceeded to give a jargon-heavy speech in English about health care and energy efficiency. Nobody interpreted, and only a handful of audience members seemed to understand him. The crowd -- raucous and dancing a few minutes earlier -- remained mostly silent during the 10-minute speech. Some people left. Others chatted on their cellphones.
"What is he saying? Do we clap now?" asked Jerry Nieves Rosario, a college student who speaks only Spanish. "If I had known about this, maybe I would have stayed home
Anticipating that kind of reaction, local advisers spent the past week offering Hillary Clinton's campaign a crash course in Puerto Rican politics. More than 80 percent of registered voters usually turn out for local elections here, and big political rallies held in stadium parking lots routinely attract more than 130,000, local politicians said. During mayoral campaigns, candidates often walk door to door while carrying boomboxes, dancing to music while meeting voters.
Politics is often referred to as the "national sport" in Puerto Rico -- one that is played by three main teams. There are those who want the island to become a U.S. state, those who want it to become an independent country and those who support it staying a commonwealth. Clinton and Obama both hope to cater to all three with a neutral position: the promise of a status resolution, based on Puerto Rico's preference.
Each candidate recently released a policy letter about Puerto Rico, and local politicians have spent weeks dissecting them to determine a preference. Clinton's letter was three pages long; Obama's was one. Clinton, by promising a status resolution by the end of her first term, became the popular choice for statehood supporters. Obama, by saying he would consider all three possibilities, tends to be popular among those who like being a commonwealth.
"If a candidate just picked one status option or the other it would be too dangerous, because you alienate half of the voters," said Kenneth McClintock, president of the Puerto Rican Senate and a superdelegate who supports Clinton. "They both want statehooders and commonwealthers. They need both.
"There's going to be a lot of questions about the policies there. Puerto Ricans are smart voters. You can't talk down to us. We know how democracy works. We do it better than you do, so you should follow our lead."
For Bill Clinton's visit, the campaign mostly acquiesced to the Puerto Rican model. He packed seven events, five of them public, into 30 hours on the island. Disc jockeys played at most of the venues. Dozens of local politicians made introductory speeches. On his right wrist, Clinton wore a woven friendship bracelet.
By arriving in Puerto Rico before Obama, the Clinton campaign hoped to solidify an already-strong advantage here. Clinton represents more Puerto Ricans as a senator from New York than any other stateside politician, and Spanish-speaking voters in Texas and California voted overwhelmingly for her. Obama's campaign, meanwhile, has yet to recover from the indictment last month of Gov. Anibal Acevedo Vilá, his most prominent Puerto Rican supporter.
"With a few good Clinton events, some more local press, this thing could be pretty much locked up," said Francisco Domenech, a Puerto Rican superdelegate who supports Clinton.
Domenech and other local Clinton organizers urged Bill Clinton to loosen up during his time on the island. Domenech described the mainland campaign tradition of a staid, 1970s classic-rock music introduction followed by a halting campaign speech as a recipe that is "just too tired and boring compared to things here." McClintock, the Senate president, told the Clinton campaign how one U.S. politician managed to thrive in Puerto Rico: Appearing at a fundraiser for McClintock in San Juan, the late senator Paul Simon persuaded his wife to dance the macarena.
Barceloneta set the stage for that kind of party. Two local bands alternated songs while hundreds of Puerto Ricans clapped to the beat. The stage became a makeshift dance floor, with dozens of couples twirling in the heat.
Then Bill Clinton entered through a side door, glasses low on his nose, and the festivities abruptly stopped.
"You have to be ready to adapt to some craziness over here," McClintock said. "It's a different political world, and everybody is finally going to see it."