Same Old Claims in Another Language

Summary
The presidential campaigns and third-party groups have been bilingual throughout the election, targeting Spanish-speaking voters with some misleading and false ads. Among the recent TV spots:

A McCain-Palin ad tries to paint Obama as a "riesgo" (risk), falsely claiming that his health care plan would require small businesses to cover their employees. But Obama's plan explicitly exempts small businesses from this requirement, and an adviser has said the threshold "would almost certainly be higher than ten" employees for businesses to be excluded.

The ad also says small businesses would be hit with "more taxes," but only those business owners clearing more than $200,000 would see an increase under Obama's plan.

An Obama-Biden/DNC ad offers other misleading statements on taxes, saying McCain would tax workers' health care benefits but failing to mention he'd give a $2,500 tax credit ($5,000 for families) to cover the cost. It also says McCain's tax plan gives "nothing" to "100 million households," ignoring his health care tax credit.

A National Rifle Association ad features a retired police officer who claims Obama "didn't think we should be allowed to use a firearm for self-defense." That refers to a vote in the Illinois Legislature to uphold enforcement of local gun bans. It wouldn't have made it a crime to use guns for self-protection elsewhere.

A new group called Latinos 4 Reform has launched a misleading anti-Obama ad that tries to paint him as no friend to Latinos by falsely claiming he doesn't support trade with countries south of the border, among other charges.

Analysis
Lest our readers start thinking that misleading political ads only come in one language, we present a look at Spanish-language ads – which, not so surprisingly, put forth the same old false and exaggerated claims we've seen in English throughout this long, long, very long campaign. Uttering these words with a melodic Spanish accent doesn't make them any more true, though it does make the ads more fun to watch – especially when we learn that Obama himself can habla español. (He speaks of the "sueño americano" – "American dream" – in an ad released this week.)

Here's our look at what the McCain-Palin and Obama-Biden campaigns, as well as third parties, have served up recently to capture the Latino vote.

McCain-Palin 2008 Ad: "Riesgo" (Risk)
Announcer: Los expertos predicen que los nuevos impuestos y mandato para un seguro de salud obligatorio de Obama y sus aliados liberales del Congreso eliminarán empleos.