Tweaked in Translation

When a campaign wants to gin up some attention for their latest ad, they usually e-mail a transcript to the media. But today, when the Obama camp announced its latest Spanish-language radio spot, it sent out two transcripts.

According to the campaign, the first one was sent out in error. It was, apparently, an older version. Here's the new one, they said, in a subsequent e-mail.

Political junkies love moments like this. It affords us a rare glimpse into the secret world of message-massage. Why does the campaign go with certain phrases? What did the campaign consider saying, then discard? Little mistakes like this offer some insight.

I was an English major, and so in the spirit of those useless old Lit classes, I offer this close reading of the two versions -- a side-by-side textual analysis of the changes.

Hmmm... If I had to speculate wildly about authorial intent -- which is what English majors do --my thesis paragraph might look something like this:

The writer's original impulse is to forge a bond with the readers (e.g., Latino immigrants) by identifying the candidate as a fellow immigrant and by sympathizing with their anger over anti-illegal immigrant sentiment ("Obama never pulled people down on his way up..."). But in the subsequent version, the writer backs away from this approach, realizing it might be a stretch to call Obama's father -- a Kenyan studying in America -- an immigrant, and that the "pulling people down" phrase might go a little too far in identifying the candidate with the immigrants rights movement.

Of course, my term paper would probably come back marked up in red pencil: Speculative!

Here's the new ad:

Also, the official version of the English transcript has this phrase: "...Obama has stood with us for immigration reform and spoke out for our veterans."

But in the ad itself, the Spanish announcer says this: "He fought to extend the G.I. bill, and bring our heroes home."

I have no theories on that one.

-- Martin Kaste

1:47 PM ET | 07-23-2008 | permalink

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