Can we talk?

Republican presidential candidates John McCain and Mitt Romney can't pronounce the surnames of the Cuban-American congressmen from Miami, U.S. Reps. Lincoln and Mario Diaz-Balart. (Note to campaigns: it's DEE-az ba-LART.) Democratic contender Chris Dodd boasts of speaking two languages -- too bad they are Pig Latin and Esperanto, joked comedian Jon Stewart.

No wonder Congress can't pass immigration reform.

One of the starkest differences between the Democratic and Republican candidates isn't the war or Social Security or the economy. It's the English language.

In a televised debate this week, not one of the 10 Republican candidates said they objected to making English the official language of the U.S. (Though McCain obliquely pointed out that the Native Americans in his home state of Arizona negotiated treaties in their native language. So noted.)

Two days earlier, when the Democratic contenders were asked the same question, only also-ran Mike Gravel stated that English should be made official. As Hillary Clinton pointed out: ``The problem is that if it becomes official instead of recognized as national -- which indeed it is, it is our national language -- if it becomes official, that means in a place like New York City you can't print ballots in any other language. That means you can't have government pay for translators in hospitals so when somebody comes in with some sort of emergency there's nobody there to help translate what their problem is for the doctor.''

The presidential field's thoughts on the English language became noteworthy in light of a proposal by Univision, the nation's most popular Spanish-language TV network, to broadcast the first presidential debates conducted entirely in Spanish. Although Univision has every intention of providing live translators, only the two candidates who speak Spanish -- Dodd and New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson -- have accepted so far.

Forums with eight Democrats and 10 Republicans are unwieldly enough without simultaneous translation. And few people would disagree that a president of the United States must speak English with the utmost proficiency (present White House occupant notwithstanding).

But you don't have to be un genio to figure out that the party that connects with Hispanic voters -- the fastest-growing part of the electorate -- stands to prosper.

''This is a test of modernity,'' said Simon Rosenberg, president of the New Democratic Network. ``Which party has what it takes to succeed in the realities of the 21st century? Getting on the wrong side of a demographic trend can make a party the minority.''

In typical fashion, candidates are on both sides at the same time. When Clinton won the endorsement last month of the Hispanic mayor of Los Angeles, her campaign circulated a memo touting her ''support among Latino voters.'' Yet she's ruled out the Univision debate -- perhaps the best Latino support-boosting platform out there -- saying she is going to stick to the six forums already sanctioned by the national party.

Republican Mitt Romney ran a Spanish-language radio ad in South Florida, and a version of his Website is available in Spanish. Yet he has repeatedly attacked the immigration bill and failed to come up with a workable alternative, lending ammunition to critics who say he's simply anti-immigrant.

Not so, Romney said in the recent debate: ``I'm not anti-immigrant. I love immigrants. I love legal immigrants coming to our country. I'm happy to communicate to them. And I hope they vote for me.''

Beth Reinhard is the political writer of The Miami Herald.

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