Below The Beltway

Today’s blogospheric equivalent of much ado about nothing, at least among the Kool-Aid drinking Republican crowd, revolves around something Barack Obama said last night in Georgia:

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. You should be thinking about, how can your child become bilingual? We should have every child speaking more than one language.

You know, it’s embarrassing when Europeans come over here, they all speak English, they speak French, they speak German. And then we go over to Europe, and all we can say [is], “Merci beaucoup.” Right?

You know, no, I’m serious about this. We should understand that our young people, if you have a foreign language, that is a powerful tool to get ajob. 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.

With some notable exceptions, the Right side of the blogosphere is over-reacting to this in typically predictable fashion.

Ed Morrissey, who I’ve got to say has lost some credibility in my mind since signing on with the Michelle Malkin crowd, says this:

Obama’s argument here makes no sense.  He’s complaining that Americans don’t speak the native language when we visit Europe, but that we don’t speak the immigrant language when people move to the United States.  With that argument, shouldn’t we expect Europeans to speak English when we travel there?

I agree that everyone should learn a foreign language.  I spoke French for a while, and I know a little Spanish from growing up in Southern California, and I studied Irish for several years.  The study of foreign language not only broadens one’s cultural perspective, but it also helps in understanding one’s native tongue.  However, to argue that Americans should learn Spanish as a higher priority than insisting that immigrants learn English is nonsense, and Obama’s argument for it is a giant non-sequitur.  It carries a strong whiff of America-bashing, too.

The problem with Morrisey’s argument is that he’s completely mis-represented what Obama said. He didn’t say that immigrants shouldn’t learn English, he’s pointing out the fact that Americans are woefully behind the rest of the world in having even minimal competence at speaking even one foreign language. I’ve met people educated in Europe and Canada who can speak, with at least enough competence to carry on a conversation, three, four, or even five languages.

What’s wrong with arguing that American students should learn that skill as well ?

Gateway Pundit picks up on the meme:

C’est terrible!… Sn-Obama is quite embarrassed that Americans are so boorish and refuse to speak French while traveling abroad.

It’s so uncouth.

Having witnessed pathetic attempts by American citizens to communicate with natives that obviously can’t understand them, I frankly have to wonder why anyone would take a vacation in a foreign country without having at least some ability to understand the native language.

But, you know, that probably makes me an elitist.

James Joyner Alex Knapp seems to be alone among those on the right who see this for what it is:

Frankly, all this seems to be is a pathetic attempt to feed the “Barack Obama is Unamerican” narrative. A narrative that, I might add, has the result of making Americans sound like ignorant hillbillies. “He’s got a funny name!” “He likes food that tastes good instead of crap that’s fried in lard!” “He likes foreigners!” “He wants to speak other languages!” “He’s educated!” “He played basketball instead of football!” Embarrassing, really.

There are lots of policy ideas that Barack Obama has that are pretty silly–his protectionist-leaning foreign trade policies, for one thing. His commitment to cutting taxes without commiserate spending cuts. His national service plan. His push to expand government funding for faith-based charities. His support for McCain-Feingold. His support for No Child Left Behind. There’s plenty to attack Obama on the merits. Why not stick to that?

Perhaps because it’s easier to play to the ignorant hillbilly demographic, even it does nothing about the fact that John McCain seems destined to go down in flames in November.