Uh-oh, here we go. Barack Obama is making the controversial claim (sic) that multilingualism is an economic advantage and McCainiacs are set to stage a huge massive freakout! (See Jonah Goldberg Coulter and Jim Geraghty.)
Here's what Barack said:
You know, I don't understand when people are going around worrying about, "We need to have English- only." They want to pass a law, "We want English-only."
Now, I agree that immigrants should learn English. I agree with that. But understand this. Instead of worrying about whether immigrants can learn English -- they'll learn English -- you need to make sure your child can speak Spanish.
Oh, noes...Tancredo-fodder! But, wait was there more? Yes, there was:
We should understand that our young people, if you have a foreign language, that is a powerful tool to get a job. You are so much more employable. You can be part of international business. So we should be emphasizing foreign languages in our schools from an early age, because children will actually learn a foreign language easier when they're 5, or 6, or 7 than when they're 46, like me.
Substantively, Barack was making two points. First, he was saying that the melting pot will do its job -- immigrants will learn English. Second, he was saying that the real issue to worry about is that not enough Americans speak more than one language because in our global economy, multilingualism is an economic advantage.
If he had said "Chinese" or "Japanese" instead of Spanish to illustrate his second point, his meaning would have been the same. The fact that he said Spanish, however, will embolden McCainiacs to try and blur the first and second points together, hoping to make it seem as if Barack is saying that Americans need to learn Spanish because of immigration.
But that of course is not at all what he was saying: he was saying that multilingualism is an economic asset. And nobody can really argue that point.
Aside from general truthiness issues, McCainiacs would be ill-advised to to push this argument because John McCain is closer to Barack Obama on immigration issues than he is to Tom Tancredo.
Moreover, given the electoral map, waging an anti-Hispanic culture war is not a path to victory -- it's a path to defeat. It might fire up their base and make red states redder, but that's not how you win presidential elections.
© Jed Lewison