Hillary Clinton 2008
Then-Senator Hillary Clinton smiles during a presidential campaign rally at San Juan Bautista Medical Center in Caguas, Puerto Rico, May 31, 2008. In September 2015, Clinton is scheduled to return to the island, currently mired in an economic crisis that includes $72 billion in debt that the government says it cannot pay. REUTERS/Ana Martinez

Hillary Clinton is going back to Puerto Rico, where she handedly won the state’s 55 Democratic delegate votes in 2008, NBC Suzanne Gamboa reports . Clinton will travel to the island, making good on a promise she made in May when it was reported that she had already budgeted $60,000 to campaign on the island. She will follow in the footsteps of rival presidential candidates who have already visited Puerto Rico this year. Democrat Martin O’Malley visited Puerto Rico in July on an official campaign stop . Republican Jeb Bush wooed Puerto Ricans on an unofficial visit in April ahead of his formal campaign announcement.

From what we can read today, it's almost as if Clinton’s 2008 trip didn’t involve pressing policy issues. Bottles of Presidente beer were sipped. Fried plátanos were devoured alongside rice and beans. Children waved “Hillary Clinton 2008” posters in the streets. Some accounts suggested that the visit was a tropical consolation prize as Hillary prepared to lose the Democratic nomination against a young first-term Senator named Barack Obama. Others reported that the candidate spoke (in English!) about her “political program,” while enjoying performances in “traditional peasant costumes” and an atmosphere replete with “tropical beats.”

In 2014 the press may be a bit more concerned with Puerto Rico’s politics than an exotic tropical party. The island’s financial crisis has caused enough turmoil for Americans on the mainland to pay attention, earning it comparisons to Greece and a slew of promises from presidential hopefuls. Martin O’Malley has been the most aggressive and detailed on the issue, but Democratic candidates including Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders generally agree on Puerto Rico’s biggest demand: pass a bill in Congress that would allow certain state entities to file for Chapter 9 bankruptcy.

"[Hillary Clinton will] share her vision for an economy that helps everyday Puerto Ricans get ahead, and stay ahead," campaign spokeswoman Xochitl Hinojosa told NBC’s Gamboa.

With the increased attention and serious directed toward Puerto Rico in the wake of its debt crisis, we’re hopeful that this time around, Hillary’s political program will be heard over the drumbeats.

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