A friend of mine who lives in San Juan just sent me his excellent observations about the presidential primary contest happening right now in Puerto Rico. As most of the discussion about the election in PR is based mostly on speculation, a single, weeks old poll and a monolithic conception of the 'Latino' vote I thought my friends account was extremely cogent. With his kind permission I have posted the words of D.B. below the fold. I suspect he may post some comments.
Just a quick few notes on the Obama/Clinton double whammy visit to
Puerto Rico this weekend and the primary next week.
I went to see Obama at a rally here in my neighborhood and I thought
to myself, jeez I haven't done this in a long time. And then I
thought, No, I have never been to a rally for a presidential candidate.
The event was essentially a big photo op and very choreographed, but
is there any other way for an event like this to happen? We all walked
through metal detectors shipped over from the airport and we all
emptied our pockets and left behind our bottles of water and banners
and umbrellas with sharp points. Inside we all walked through a
corridor to where the rally would be and where we were given new water
and new flags to wave.
He arrived in a caravan of black Ford Explorers and we all cheered and
waited for him to get out, which took about ten minutes, because the
press then had to be shuttled in through the corridors. He gave a very
short speech that was no "Hey Jude" [inside joke] but happily was not
pandering. It was a short list of what he will work on: getting
benefits for vets, ending the war, sending kids to good schools and
protecting the environment. And for Puerto Rico's status question, he
said what he has to say: He will listen to what the Puertoricans want.
After the speech it was time for him to walk through old san juan, but
first he passed by us and shook the hands of the crowd. We all lined
up by the portable fences with our flags in hand and he passed down
the line shaking hands. In front of him walked three secret service
agents scanning the crowd and telling us to put down the flags. Five
feet in front of him in the street paced a Ford Explorer with a
secret service agent walking along holding the back door open.
As he approached where I was standing someone next to me offered him
something (I think it was a Puertorrican flag). He stopped and said
"What I can do is shake your hand."
And as he stood in front of me all I could think was This guy is
really really tired. Tired of shaking a thousand hands, tired of
campaigning, tired of speeches, tired of being told by the secret
service where to walk, when to walk, what to do.
I shook his hand and said to him Give 'em hell, well I muttered it
because I knew he wouldn't hear me and not because it was so loud.
Well, despite his tiredness, he charmed the pants off the island. The
front pages this morning had full page pictures of his beaming smile
and crowds of people. The headline in El Nuevo Dia was Obama Enchants
Puerto Rico: Walks through San Juan, Dances Salsa. Meanwhile the
headline for Hillary's visit was Hillary brings an Avalanche of
Promises.
So who will win? The obvious answer is Hillary. She has name
recognition here, as she reminds us regularly she was the one who came
to visit the island after Hurricane Georges in 1999 to deliver federal
aid. She has the backing of the Statehood party which is going to win
this year. But, when you look at her backers, none of them are
actually running for anything. They are a bunch, uhm, hasbeens of the
Democratic Party of Puerto Rico, which is in itself solely made up of
politicians who hope to get a job in the federal government. So
although she has the institutional backing, the institution has
nothing too much to gain for turning out the votes.
Obama on the other hand has the support of the Status Quo party, which
is problematic on two counts: The governor and head of the party is
facing federal election fraud charges, and secondly, one wing of the
party supports a boycott of the primary all together. He also has the
support of the Statehood party's number two candidate.
This is Obama's biggest problem: the Left in Puerto Rico is solidly
anti-colonial and therefore ambivalent at best about US politics and
participating within it. They'd be happy to see him win just as the
Left in Panama or in Albania would be, but don't plan to participate
because that would further the annexation of PR by the US.
I talked to a friend who is a volunteer for the campaign and asked
how's it feel for election day. Her response is Total Apathy. The most
hyped primary race ever and here it's just not so relevant.
In the end, the primary in Puerto Rico is a show that will mean little
and change nothing.