There was the debate between the Democratic Presidential Candidates between Hillary Clinton and Baracak Obama in Texas and aired by CNN and Univision. The debate was full of hot topics such as Cuba, Immigration, and Health Care Reforms. Other subjects came to the forefront of the discussion later on into the debate. The moderators were Campbell Brown for CNN and Jorge Ramos for Univision who did their homework before participating.
On the issue of Cuba, Hillary Clinton stated that she was willing to talk to Raul Castro when conditions such as release of political prisoners, opening of the political process, and some form of free elections and reconciliation. Barack Obama was forced to change his earlier position of meeting with the Castro Brothers in order to fit with the environment in Texas.
Immigration was another hot topic in which both agreed that they approved of the construction of the wall between the United States of America and Mexico only to see that the law split communities including the University of Texas Campus. Both candidates reiterated on the need to learn English but also to prepare for a bilingual and multilingual world. Both candidates acknowledged that the United States of America cannot afford to isolate itself from the rest of the world.
When Mrs.Clinton and Mr.Obama started to discuss Health Care, it appeared that the tension was building regardless of the language with Obama talking about a voluntary programme and Hillary Clinton talking about a mandatory programme. When Jorge Ramos of Univision attempted to ask Mrs. Clinton about whether Barack Obama was “Presidential Material”, Hillary Clinton cut him off by insisting on answering the questions on Health Care and the need to for it to be mandatory. Personally, it is not considered good manners nor presidential to cut off a journalist when he or she is asking a question. Mrs. Clinton may have lost some points with her interruptions. Campbell Brown appeared shocked that such an interruption occurred.
Mrs. Clinton and Mr.Obama started arguing with each other on the subject of plagiarism with Mrs. Clinton accusing Mr. Obama of “Xeroxing Changes”. This term appears to be a new one but Mr. Obama replied that he had received permission from his speechmaker and that “little subjects “ should not be addressed. Mr. Obama talked about the need toresolve the problems of getting the United States of America back on a stable course.
The winner in my opinion was Barack Obama, and the CNN Journalists in collaboration with Univision.
PS: I forgot to add that even though Obama won the debate, he did not answer the question I sent to him via CNN about his 210 Billion Dollar Recovery Package. Where will he get the money?
El Noticiero de Alvarez Galloso 