Hispanic Iowa editor says Clinton, Edwards won Spanish-language forum, but she leans to Obama

"The editor of an influential newspaper in western Iowa's Latino community ... thinks Hillary Clinton and John Edwards had the strongest performances in the Univision debate in Miami," reports the Iowa Independent. But Lorena Lopez of La Prensa, in photo with her son, is leaning toward an endorsement of Barack Obama, whom she interviewed in Spanish recently, after first leaning to Clinton, Doug Burns reports in the Web-only Independent and the newspaper where he works, the Daily Times Herald of Carroll -- where La Prensa is also based.

Lopez "says Clinton appeared to command issues and seemed 'calm' in her approach to the questions on issues of concern to the Latin community," Burns writes for the Independent. "She thinks Edwards may have made some inroads with his debate performance as well. Lopez is writing an article for her paper on the details of these views, and we'll get a translation." (Read more)

The free, twice-monthly tabloid, which claims a distribution of 6,800 after 16 months in business, is "one of the more influential venues for discussion and debate in western Iowa's burgeoning Hispanic community," Burns writes in the Times Herald. Assisting Lopez, a former television personality in Nicaragua, is her son, Carlos A. Arguello, 23, a graduate of the local high school and the University of Northern Iowa. (Read more)

In the "Destino 2008" debate from Miami, Edwards "made his health care plan seem cheaper than it would actually be. He assumed it was in effect right now, rather than the soonest it could possibly be implemented, which is 2009 or 2010," reports Annenberg Political Fact Check, or FactCheck.org.