Foreign Policy Blogs

Le Monde's Lonely Trip to Puerto Rico

While both European and American media continue to devote heavy coverage to the Democratic presidential primary race, there has been hardly reporting on the campaigns' activities in Puerto Rico, the semi-autonomous American territory – partly because Obama is now seen as the almost inevitable Democratic candidate and Puerto Ricans cannot vote in the actual presidential election. Puerto Rico does, however, send delegates to the Democratic National Convention in Denver in August.

Nonetheless, a surprising and lonely effort has been made by none other than France's most intellectually prestigious daily newspaper, Le Monde. The main headline of the paper's online version at 11:00am on Friday May 30th read "Distancée, Hillary Clinton tente d'entretenir la flamme avec la primaire de Porto Rico.'* The article was written from the capital, San Juan, by special correspondent Jean-Michel Caroit.

*Translated: "Outdistanced, Hillary Clinton tries to keep the flame alive in the Puerto Rican Primary.' May 30, 2008 Le Monde