Se habla espanol!?
It was upbeat, precise, as organized as a meeting of the board of directors,
framed at beginning and end with rousing music -- a near-perfect campaign stop:
President George W. Bush arrived on schedule. He gave his speech. He moderated a
panel of five people on a makeshift stage in front of a sign that said
"Strengthening America's Economy." He wove their stories seamlessly into the
fabric of his re-election campaign. He engaged in self-deprecating humor that
even a detractor might find charming.
And then he left -- to a standing ovation -- shaking hands all the way to the
exit door of U.S.A. Industries in Bay Shore, where his campaign made this first
of three stops on Long Island yesterday.
Security people kept reporters from interviewing the workers at U.S.A. until the
president was on the way to his next stop.
But when workers were finally interviewed -- these people who made up the bulk
of the president's cheering audience in New York -- Bush's performance turned
out to be, if anything, even more impressive.
"No speak English," said the first worker, smiling apologetically.
"No speak English," said the second, third, fourth, fifth and sixth workers
way-laid in the crowd.
But you think the tax cuts should be made permanent, as he says?
"Sorry, no English," said another.
It is possible that President Bush could have drawn a crowd of several hundred
at lunchtime on the streets of Bay Shore to cheer his economic policies, which
can be summed up in two words: tax cuts.
But if that crowd is ready-made -- the work force of a small auto parts factory
whose owner has received tax breaks from the Republican-run state and town
governments, and who employs large numbers of non-English speaking immigrants
happy to work for $6 to $9 an hour with few benefits -- why bother?
"I understand him a little bit English," said Nubia Guzman, a packer who said
she earns $7.50 an hour after four years on a job that Bush had described in his
speech as evidence of the success of his tax cutting economic policies. She has
no health coverage.
What did you like about him? she was asked.
"He nice," she said.
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