At least one top Washington pundit expects the Spanish language television networks to sponsor presidential debates en Espanol.

Latinos and other Spanish speakers are probably cringing at the thought of the likes of Hillary Cilnton, Barack Obama and John McCain practicing rolling their Rs. If anything these events would provide loads of hilarious YouTube clips.

This prediction made by Newsweek's Howard Fineman on "The Chris Matthews Show" underscores the growing clout of Spanish language media. The presidential campaigns are going to write plenty of checks to Univision Communications Inc. (NYSE:UVN) and General Electric Co.'s (NYSE:GE) Telemundo because of the importance of the Latino vote.

For example, Spanish-language TV spending rose at 13.9 percent last year compared with 2.5 percent gain in network TV and a 3.4 percent gain for cable, according to TNS Media Intelligence. There was a similar disparity in both newspapers and magazines. There's no reason not to expect that trend to continue.

If Fineman's prediction comes true, it will benefit Democrats Bill Richardson and Chris Dodd, who speak Spanish. Richardson, the governor of New Mexico, is the only Latino candidate, and Dodd, a Senator from Connectict, learned the language as a Peace Corps volunteer.

"Dodd I'm told by Spanish speakers, speaks Spanish better than Richardson does," Fineman said on the program today (via Mediabistro.)

Would presidential debates in Spanish be magnifico? originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Sun, 18 Mar 2007 17:25:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.