"Somos todos americanos"

In those three words you can resume Obama's mayor speech on his policy toward the Americas and the Caribbean.

Besides the excellent proposals, and the wise analysis, it's really refreshing to see the next President of the United States treat its neighbors as his equals, as partners, not looking down upon them.  One of the main problems Latin America has with Bush is not his policies, or the war in Iraq (ok, we have major issues with those as well), but his total lack of deference towards the Region.  You could say that, except for Colombia and Mexico, the Bush Administration has completely ignored Latin America.

You can read the full speech here.

But other that the brilliance of his plan, it's the brilliance of his timing.  In a one-two punch, he gives Cuban American voters in Florida major news, and tomorrow he will be in Puerto Rico a week before the primary, where I hope he expands on his plans!  

Si Se Puede, indeed!  

Primary news from Puerto Rico below.

Got on the Rec List! For more background on PR check out my older diaries.

Lots of news today.

Barack Obama is expected to arrive in the island today, Hillary tomorrow.  

All newspapers have two or three articles on the race.

Yesterday, HRC gave her first interview with local news. Here's the link. The main highlight is that she wants Puerto Rico to vote for the President.  She says it could be under the current commonwealth relationship.  

There is also a piece about Richardson's visit.  

My impression on both below.

After the popularity of my first rec. diary, I´m gonna try and give you a small summary of all news published in PR´s papers, radio and TV every day and translate them to you.

First off, there is a very good AP wire piece about how passional campaigning on the island is, and how presidential campaigns have adapted.  For example, the Obama campaign did not buy a single yard sign. Instead they bough "banderas".

Here is how 15,000 political banderas in action look. (From a general assembly by one of the main parties in the island).

PPD General Assembly, April 29th.

There is also an excellent article in the NY times today.

Now let´s read some newspapers.

Much has been said, and much more will be said, in the next days about the Puerto Rico primary, and how it will give Hillary the popular count vote (if you include FL, and don't count caucus state, and if the sun turns blue, etc).  And let's for now ignore the fact, that she plans to make that case with a couple hundred thousand votes by american citizens that cannot vote for her in November.

But since no one in the mainland media really knows anything about Puerto Rico, nor has there been any polling done recently, I'll give you my take on what I'm seeing on the ground.

But first some background on PR election results.

::: This has been really fun, but I'm gonna go watch the ending of the Spurs-Lakers game and then to sleep.  Please leave any questions in the comments, I will answer them tomorrow.  Thank you all! :::

::: Top recommended?  Really?  Dkos has oficially jumped the shark.  Thank you all! :::

::: Just got into the top 3!  All right, you will make me leave the beach house early and vote change in 08!  Puerto Rico's primary does not count for much, we cannot vote in November, but man would it be fun to destroy the Clinton's last remaining argument :::

I'll probably write a whole diary on the case in a couple of days, after the whole hoopla on the indictement wears down.

But please know that House Democrats had already taken notice on the federal probe against the Democratic Governor of Puerto Rico almost a year ago, and now they will surely include the case on their ongoing congressional investigation on the US Attorneys scandal.  What's worse, this probe had been ongoin for over 4 years, and the indictment is released during the PA primary.  Four of the indicted are democratic fundraiser from Philladelphia, and the Philly Enquirer broke the news this morning at 6:30 am.  So go figure.  I'm sure all major papers and news outlet in PA will pick the news and highlight the fact that he is a Obama superdelegate.

Republican dirty trick?  I would not put it pass them.

More links:
Link 1 (NY Times)

It has been reportedin various places, including my previous diary, that the Puerto Rico primary would be held on June 7th, a Sunday.  Well, that´s incorrect.

Puertorrican law states that the democratic primary will be held on the first Sunday of June. The DNC scheduled the primary for June the 7th, but the problem is that the first Sunday of June is the 1st!!!  A local reporter´s blog clarified this today (in spanish).  It seems that the DNC made a scheduling mistake.  But the law is clear, so the contest will be held on June 1st, leaving the South Dakota and Montana Primaries as the Last in the Nation on June 3rd.

In other news, the local DNC meeting to determine whether it changes the PR contest from a caucus to a primary will be tomorrow (Thursday), not today as I said yesterday.  I´ll keep you posted when the decision is made.

In the meantime, let´s discuss some current political issues that will surely affect the PR Presidential Primary.

It´s still early, just 11:13 PM Eastern time, but it seems that this primary season will drag on till the bitter end, which means the last contest between Obama and Clinton will be the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico
caucuses (or primary) to be held on Sunday, June 7th, and its 63 delegates.

As a politically active Puertorican, I plan on using this diary as a tool to inform about state of the presidential campaign in the island, and its main players and issues, among other factors that will surely affect the result.  Off the bat let´s establish that the main issue for puertorican voters will not be Iraq, the economy or social security.  The main issue, as always, will be the Island political status.  Since the US invasion in 1898 the island has been obsessed with its political status.  The last status plebiscite was held in 1998 with the option "None of the Above" beating (in Spanish) statehood 50.1% to 46.5%.

And you may ask, "None of the Above" WTF?