Sep
28
U.S. Presidential debate in Madrid
Last night I attended a special screening of the McCain-Obama debate at the Casa de América in Madrid. It was a joint-event of the Democrats Abroad and the Republicans Abroad. I don’t know if the organizers expected such a huge turnout but it was great to see so many people show up. There were easily 200 people, if not more, in the room and many people had to remain standing or sit on the floor. I haven’t seen that many Americans in one place in Madrid, outside of Barajas airport.
Anyway, you can click here to get the news story in Spanish, but here’s my take on the evening’s proceedings:
Scariest moment: Seeing two Spanish women wearing McCain-Palin buttons, one of whom clapped hysterically every time James Levy, the president of the Republicans Abroad in Spain, said anything. I thought she was going to hurt herself. What the —-? I wonder if these women were Partido Popular/Esperanza Aguirre supporters and they think that Sarah Palin is the American equivalent? Nah, more likely they were the Spanish wives of the two Republican guys participating in the panel discussion.
Wackiest moment: During the Q&A part of the panel discussion, some guy, wearing a tweed jacket, kept heckling the panel. When he finally got a chance to ask a question, he stood up and started asking his question in Spanish, stopped, started again in Spanish, stopped and then switched to English. It was obvious that Spanish wasn’t his native language from la primera palabra but it was clear he wanted to take his Spanish out for a test drive in public. I couldn’t contain my laughter when the people sitting behind me started wondering aloud, “Why is he speaking in Spanish? Speak English!”
Cutest “awwshucks, kids say the dardnest things” moment: A very passionate and articulate young girl, she couldn’t have been older than 13 by the looks of her, a Hillary Rodham Clinton in the making, got up and asked why was intelligence out and stupidity in when it came to American politics. She also questioned John McCain’s faux populism, noting that he had something like “13 houses” while Barack Obama only had one. I was impressed that the adults on the panel treated her question seriously and didn’t brush her off, although the Republican guy’s response was that McCain isn’t a homeowner…that it is his wife, Cindy McCain, who owns all those properties. The audience groaned.
Biggest applause of the evening: When Obama mentioned McCain’s recent mixup about Spain. The crowd erupted in cheers and clapping, which was only to be expected, I guess.
I also cheered when Obama mentioned Spain…then had to explain the story to everyone watching the debate with me, since it’s obviously not been nearly as prevalent on news here.
It wasn’t live at 3am, I hope. Sounds like a pretty cool event.
Erik,
Nah, it wasn’t live. They had recorded the entire debate the night before from CNN and then showed it on a large screen. They also handed out headphones so that people in the audience could listen to a Spanish translation, which was pretty cool.
The video I downloaded was from CNN too. How useless was that stupid “audience approval” graph? Sheesh!
If I were a presidential candidate I’d really want to lose. I mean, look at the mess US is in on both foreign and domestic fronts… This would be the toughest job ever.
Your account of the screening at Casa de América is accurate, although it is missing a description of the q&a session… I encourage you to see my blog entry for that: http://www.megaspora.net/en/2008/09/27/us-presidential-debate-in-madrid/
Cheers,
Hey Pedro,
Yes, you’re right. The two Republican reps were very evenhanded, reasonable and well-spoken and for a brief moment I saw that wow, Republicans and Democrats can be in the same room to talk about politics and do it in a civil manner. Just like in the good ol’ days of the 20th-century. Unfortunately for McCain, the two Madrid reps of the U.S. Republican party are not the type of Republican voices that people commonly hear or read in the media, not even on Fox News which is just one big pundit scream-a-thon. Actually, all the cable news networks are just pundit scream-a-thons. It’s grating.