Reaching the Hispanic Population

As the presidential campaign comes to an end, Obama and McCain are scrambling to reach voters in any way to get their support and ultimately their vote. One way that both candidates have done this is by attempting to reach the Hispanic population in the United States.

Barack created a 30-second spot advertisement in Spanish where he actually spoke 65 words in Spanish. He also bought airtime on the Spanish network Univision to have his 30-minute infomercial translated into Spanish. McCain has also had various political advertisements translated to Spanish. With the growing Hispanic population in the U.S. today, it is very important to reach them in a personal way. However, many of the Spanish speaking people in America that are registered to vote speak English fluently and more often than Spanish. Is it condescending or a good idea to try to reach Hispanics by speaking Spanish? Obama definitely did a better job by actually attempting to speak the language rather than just having it translated.

I think that Obama's attempt to reach the Hispanic voters was a strategic move. Hispanic people in the United States have an emerging voice and Obama may be able to capitalize on that. It is important to reach the minority groups, and McCain has do to something more than simply have his advertisements translated to do that. Although English is the national language in the United States, Spanish is becoming more and more prominent in many areas. Obama is making some smart moves. However, John Kerry also attempted to speak Spanish in political advertisements in 2004 and it didn't win him the election.