Obama to visit Puerto Rico Tuesday-first president to do so since JFK

[jenmito]

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico – Cheering crowds in the steamy tropical heat are expected Tuesday when President Barack Obama makes a rare presidential visit to Puerto Rico.

But the nearly 4 million U.S. citizens who live on the island and can't vote in the general election aren't really the point.

Organizers are hoping this trip, the first in decades by a president to the U.S. Caribbean territory, will generate good will on the mainland, particularly in Florida, where the fast-growing Hispanic population will be essential to Obama's re-election effort in 2012.

"The past decade has witnessed a staggering growth in the Puerto Rican community," said Andres W. Lopez, a member of the Democratic Central Committee who helped organize the visit. "They have become the quintessential battleground community in the nation's battleground state."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/cb_puerto_rico_obama

[jberryhill]

1. Another Foreign Trip? Geez...

[bigwillq]

2. Geez what?

:shrug:

[jberryhill]

4. Geez...He should stay in the US for a while...that's what

Instead of going off to foreign countries like Puerto Rico.

Can you hear me now....

[bigwillq]

5. Have you calculated

how much time he spends in the US versus abroad?

[jberryhill]

6. No, but...

Do you recognize the Arecibo Radio Observatory receiver?

It's the thing on my head.

[bigwillq]

7. So it's ok if YOU go to Puerto Rico

but the President of the freaking UNITED STATES can't??



Calculate and get back to me.

:hi:

[jberryhill]

9. Lol

[bigwillq]

10. How was Arecibo?

That's where my boyfriend is from.

[jberryhill]

11. The dish is up in the hills by Rio Camuy

...it's not really all that close to Arecibo - not on some of those roads. The terrain around there is pretty impressive, especially if your GPS thinks cow paths are improved roads. The mountains, though, are hypnotically beautiful.

The town is pretty cool. It's a good place to forget you are in the US. I've seen the north coast out to Rincon, but really hoping to someday see some more of the interior and the south coast towns.

People gotta get out of San Juan and look around.

[Hippo_Tron]

8. I thought James Bond blew up the Arecibo Observatory...

But then when I saw it again in that Jodie Foster movie, I wasn't so sure.

[jberryhill]

12. She'd still be looking for intelligent life on the Internet...

[Starbucks Anarchist]

13. Puerto Rico is a US territory.

[jberryhill]

14. Really?

I think you'll have to provide a link for that.

[Starbucks Anarchist]

15. Are you joking?

[jberryhill]

16. Are you?

I would have thought the picture of me standing under one of the largest and most famous objects in Puerto Rico would be a tip-off, but I'll play along if you like.

[Starbucks Anarchist]

17. No.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puerto_Rico

Puerto Rico ( /ˌpɔrtə ˈriːkoʊ/ or /ˌpwɛərtə ˈriːkoʊ/), officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico (Spanish: "Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico", —literally Associated Free State of Puerto Rico), is an unincorporated territory of the United States, located in the northeastern Caribbean Sea, east of the Dominican Republic and west of both the United States Virgin Islands and the British Virgin Islands.

[jberryhill]

18. Well then I guess one of us was not joking.

Lol

[jenmito]

3. Sarcasm, I hope. n/t

[KingFlorez]

19. Nobody knows in America, Puerto Rico's in America

[jberryhill]

20. But they don't even speak the official language of the US!