1709 Language Anguish

Sometimes politicians don't get the language thing. Like recently I heard an official talking to a local crowd and attempting to come across as less stiff and more approachable. He was talking about the economy and how we had lost a number of jobs. He went on to say we needed to fill those jobs again.
Unfortunately he was using the hole analogy. Like the economy was in a hole and the job declines were in the hole. So he said, in reference to filling those jobs, that we needed to "backfill" that hole.
Which backfired in the sensitivity department. Backfill a hole is more of a road patch thing. Or like filling a grave.
Language is important. So I was not surprised recently when Mitt Romney won the Puerto Rican Republican presidential primary. And not just because he has investments in the Cayman Islands nearby. Although there's nothing that brings on a feeling of solidarity more than being in the same hurricane path.
No, I wasn't surprised because Mitt, for all his gaffes, understands that you need to at least make an effort to speak your potential constituent's language.
Language is key to understanding, and acceptance. So when Rick Santorum told the Spanish speaking nation, who has been Spanish speaking ever since the Spanish wiped out their native Caribbean lingo, that they needed to make their official language English if they wanted to be an American state, you can imagine the language hurdle to delegate winning he put in his own path.
Hurdle aside, it's really difficult running a race with your foot in your mouth.
Santorum, whose own name doesn't sound very American when you get down to it, messed up. You might say he told the people of Puerto Rico what they didn't want to hear in a language they didn't understand.
America ya gotta love it.