“'I hope very much that I'm the last president in American history who can't speak Spanish…”

WASHINGTON, June 13. (by Calvin Woodward, AP) - President Clinton took note Tuesday of the lively – and sometimes bilingual – contest by both parties for the Hispanic vote. Then he took aim at Republicans, claiming they are falling short in issues important to those voters.

"I hope very much that I'm the last president in American history who can't speak Spanish,'' Clinton said in a nod to presidential candidates Al Gore and George W. Bush, both of whom are comfortable throwing Spanish phrases into their speeches…

Peter Brimelow writes: This further supports my theory that all modern political diseases are invented in Canada. Institutional bilingualism was imposed there in the 1960s. What then materialized, of course, was that there are unspoken but radical public-choice consequences to bilingualism. (Public choice is that branch of economics that examines the reallocative consequences of government decisions). As a practical matter, most English Canadians never hear French spoken unless they accidentally surf into one of the government-subsidized French-language TV channels. So most English Canadians speak only English. Therefore they are ineligible for the top offices, and many government positions, in their own country.

The beneficiaries of bilingualism: firstly, the minority language group, who have more opportunity to become bilingual; secondly, the Anglo upper class, who are more likely to spend money on time on language education.

Dubya to Reagan Democrats (not for the first time): drop dead.

Over to you, Pat Buchanan.

(Full AP story currently posted at http://www.foxnews.com/national/0613/d_ap_0613_272.sml)