The Gist

¡Viva El Presidente Obama!

The other day Obama suggested -- pretty reasonably -- that children growing up today in America should learn Spanish. Obama's remarks have caused frothy spasms of xenophobic craziness on the right the likes of which we haven't seen in quite some time. Lou Dobbs head might explode. ¡Qué malo!

Do these conservatives not realize that we live in a globalized world and that if Americans know Spanish on top of English it will give them a competitive edge in emerging markets?

Actually, maybe Obama has it all wrong on learning Spanish; given the tremendous amount of our debt the Chinese Government currently owns, American children might be better served learning Mandarin.