Sorry, McCain, Castro Doesn't Heart Obama
It looks like it's going to be a bit more difficult for the GOP to portray Obama as the preferred candidate of hostile foreign tyrants.
Less than a week after John McCain attacked Obama for saying he would be willing to negotiate with the Castro regime, Fidel Castro himself has given a major thumbs down to Obama's plan to let Cuban-Americans visit their relatives on the island, while still maintaining the overall commercial embargo.
"Obama's speech can be translated as a formula for hunger for the country," the retired dictator wrote in a column for the state-run newspaper, going on to call the proposal "propaganda for consumerism and a way of life that is unsustainable."
At the same time, Castro acknowledged that he isn't exactly a sought-out endorsement in American politics: "Were I to defend him, I would do his adversaries an enormous favor. I have therefore no reservations about criticizing him and about expressing my points of view on his words frankly."
We all are used GOP spin crap:
If Hamas endorses he's is bed with terrorist.
If Castro chides, don't take the communist dictator on his words.
But more interesting for me is the irony that Obama inadvertently has triggered a dialogue already.
May 26, 2008 2:02 PM | Reply | Permalink
Inadvertently?
I suspect the response is not going to be to ignore Castro, though. They are probably going to use this as proof that Obama cannot really magically change Cuba to a capitalist paradise in three days as we all know he has been claiming thus far.
May 26, 2008 2:26 PM | Reply | Permalink
I agree also, this is the first time in a while I've heard Fidel Castro make comment regarding US elected officials.
Only underscores my belief that the world is watching this election and too is optimistic about Obama's candidacy.
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THIS IS EXCELLENT!! NEWS FOR HILLARY!!
she has become yesterday's news to many abroad,
Even Japan is put off by her recent assassination remarks the other day from this translated news report I found on the freerepublic.com site.
May 26, 2008 6:21 PM | Reply | Permalink
Isn't this a good thing for Cuba, then? Castro denigrates it, later, but wouldn't this be viewed favorably by Cubans? (And Cuban-Americans)
And secondly, who did the translation of this?
May 26, 2008 2:05 PM | Reply | Permalink
Castro Commentary in Granma
May 26, 2008 2:13 PM | Reply | Permalink
Oops I should have clicked the link above. I didn't as I had read the story at the Granma site.
Granma is the official Cuban govt. newspaper and has in house translators.
May 26, 2008 2:14 PM | Reply | Permalink
Thanks--I should have clicked, as well.
May 26, 2008 2:31 PM | Reply | Permalink
I can't decide whether or not to heart this.
May 26, 2008 2:18 PM | Reply | Permalink
By the way I returned Friday from my seventh trip to Cuba during which I confirmed with casa hosts and cab drivers my understanding of Cuban elections.
Folks often decry Cuba's "one party system", but what they don't understand is that Cuban elections are non-partisan, such as city council elections generally are in the USA. Cuban candidates need not be members of the Communist party.
Every Cuban is automatically registered to vote upon their 16th birthday. Anyone may stand for election and there is no campaigning, other than face-to-face contact within the election district. The government produces and distributes photos and biographies of each candidate.
There is a three stage process. Elections of municipal assemblies, elections for provincial assemblies, and elections to the national assembly. The national assembly elects the president from amongst its members.
May 26, 2008 2:23 PM | Reply | Permalink
Why does TPM feature a picture of a smiling
Republican Senator, and pick a very unflattering
picture of Senator Obama. This is not the first time that
TPM has used this picture of Senator Obama.
There are plenty of much better pictures of him
available to TPM. What is the message that TPM
is trying to convey.
May 26, 2008 2:24 PM | Reply | Permalink
STAY ALERT! They walk among us... and the scary part is that they VOTE and
they REPRODUCE.
May 26, 2008 2:33 PM | Reply | Permalink
Do you hear voices in your head like Tena?
May 26, 2008 2:55 PM | Reply | Permalink
Oh well, there's goes the all important Castro endorsement. Now if we could only get Ahmadinejad
to call Obama a poopy pig.
May 26, 2008 2:42 PM | Reply | Permalink
Castro is free to trade with any nation in the world he likes, and he has no embargo on US foodstuffs or medicine, so it's not America that's making his people hungry. The embargo, in fact is a joke because the US is Castro's largest food trading partner. What he wants is for us to finance his food buying as well supply the food, on both ends, which would alleviate the need for him to do anything productive with his economy.
Meanwhile, what's that again about hunger in Cuba? I thought communism ended hunger, being more humane and all. And there's all that free health care - I saw it myself in a Michael Moore movie. How pathetic that Castro cries out to capitalist countries to alleviate his people's starvation instead of consult his own policies.
I find it ominous that Castro, for all his criticism of Obama, still finds him the 'most advanced' of the candidates. Would that be 'advanced' as in, 'most like Castro'?
May 26, 2008 2:45 PM | Reply | Permalink
Yes, Obama is obviously just like Castro. Brilliant analysis, moron.
May 26, 2008 2:49 PM | Reply | Permalink
Well, your error starts with the "no embargo" and "free to trade" part.. the rest kind of goes from there.
May 26, 2008 2:58 PM | Reply | Permalink
He never uses the phrase "most advanced." Here's the line you might be referring to:
Is saying that he's more liberal than Hillary or McCain really that big of a statement?
May 26, 2008 3:04 PM | Reply | Permalink
?????
Here's the Republican response to Castro's reflection, folks.
May 26, 2008 2:49 PM | Reply | Permalink
Cubans will be visited by relatives who will regale them with tales of a country that doesn't still drive cars from the 1950's. How horrid.
May 26, 2008 2:53 PM | Reply | Permalink
There are indeed lots of fifties USA cars in Cuba, many of which are fitted with Eastern European diesel motors and transmission. Folks drive them as a matter of pride and the cars in nice condition are traded at prices comparable to new compact cars. Many have been purchased with money obtained from relatives living abroad, including here in the USA.
But it also has lots, and lots of modern Korean, French, and Japanese cars. There are also modern Chinese buses, modern Chinese, Korean, and Swedish heavy trucks and equipment.
The Cuban economy has, in fact, advanced enormously since the "special period" following the collapse of the USSR and the end to its subsidies.
May 26, 2008 3:08 PM | Reply | Permalink
So the American stereotype of Cubans making old Chevrolets work long past their expiration date isn't reflective of reality?
May 26, 2008 3:13 PM | Reply | Permalink
Well in fact Cubans have made old USA cars "work long past their expiration date", and have been quite innovative in doing so. As I indicated in another comment many have been retrofitted with exhaust belching Eastern European engines and also transmissions from Eastern European rigs. I road in a '53 Dodge last July which was fitted with a rear end from a tractor. Friends in Playa Baracoa have a '50s Hillman with motor, transmission, and rear end from a Russian Lada (basically a '70s Fiat which is the most common car in Cuba) and a steering system from a Korean car.
As Cubans often say, "we are experts at making lots from little", or derivations of such.
I should have noted above that most of the new Korean and French cars are used as official taxis and rental cars. Though there are many that are privately owned.
Doctor's, for instance, are provided new cars at greatly subsidized prices and may sell them to others if they wish.
May 26, 2008 3:26 PM | Reply | Permalink
Fluff. All fluff. Nothing. Meaningless, all of this.
May 26, 2008 2:53 PM | Reply | Permalink
"Were I to defend him, I would do his adversaries an enormous favor. I have therefore no reservations about criticizing him and about expressing my points of view on his words frankly."
That's a strange thing to say.
Were I to defend him, it would hurt him, therefore I won't defend him.... but by recognizing my defense would hurt him, I actually am defending him, but that, in turn, hurts him, which I have no reservations of doing, therefore.... helping him?!?
May 26, 2008 3:22 PM | Reply | Permalink
Hmm after reading the Spanish version I'm convinced that Fidel Castro does have a soft spot for Obama.
"The content of these declarations by this strong candidate to the U.S. presidency spares me the work of having to explain the reason for this reflection.
What did he say in his speech in Miami, this man who is doubtless, from the social and human points of view, the most progressive candidate to the U.S. presidency?
I am not questioning Obama’s great intelligence, his debating skills or his work ethic. He is a talented orator and is ahead of his rivals in the electoral race. I feel sympathy for his wife and little girls, who accompany him and give him encouragement every Tuesday. It is indeed a touching human spectacle. Nevertheless, I am obliged to raise a number of delicate questions. I do not expect answers; I wish only to raise them for the record."
Normally if he was talking about Bush, he wouldn't be calling him this strong candidate, etc. He'd be calling him EL DIABLO like Chavez does. But well, they like him. So what? He's a likable guy. Important is that He doesn't agree with THEM.
May 26, 2008 4:49 PM | Reply | Permalink
CASTRO ENDORSES MCCAIN!!!
Well, why not? If he's against Obama, he must be for McCain, right? I mean, that would be a more legitimate claim to make than Hamas endorses Obama.
May 26, 2008 3:55 PM | Reply | Permalink
Obama endorses Bullwinkle !! Yea! Junior high school certainly was fun, wasn't it?
May 26, 2008 6:15 PM | Reply | Permalink
I'm honored and humbled... Now where's that squirrel?
May 26, 2008 8:54 PM | Reply | Permalink
Sure it's as legit as "Hamas endorses Obama" which makes it totally illegitimate.
May 26, 2008 4:43 PM | Reply | Permalink
I feel sympathy for his wife and little girls, who accompany him and give him encouragement every Tuesday.
What does "every Tuesday" mean? You sure you have that quote right Bserious?
May 26, 2008 5:12 PM | Reply | Permalink
Yes, that's what he said. "Todo los Martes". I don't know where he got that from either.
http://www.granma.cu/ingles/2008/mayo/lun26/Reflections-26may.html
May 26, 2008 5:49 PM | Reply | Permalink
Iam 3 thousand miles away on the wrong side of the Atlantic and have not seen the original transcript of the article. I suspect, however, that El Presidente (or whatever title he is known by these days) was making an oblique reference to the day of the week on which the primaries are held.
May 26, 2008 6:32 PM | Reply | Permalink
This is a non-endorsement endorsement. Obama's plan would put millions in hard currency in Cuba's coffers. So Castro, knowing how knee-jerk my compatriots in Miami are, puts out a soft (but substantive, given what we Cubans pay attention to) criticism of Obama. Thus allowing some plausible deniability that Obama is the guy Raúl, the more pragmatic of the Castro brothers, would be the US candidate he'd rather do business with.
May 26, 2008 5:39 PM | Reply | Permalink
I worry about Cuba. They've developed a distorted but unique culture unlike the rest of the Caribbean because they haven't been dominated by El Norte like Jamaica, the Bahamas and the rest for the last 48 years. Does anybody think those old cars or the musicians of the Buena Vista Social Club would have existed if not for our dismal relations over the last half century? I'd like to go someday, on a direct flight from Chicago but I'd be disappointed if I found a McDonald's or a Starbucks in the airport. I'm sick of worldwide homogenization.
May 26, 2008 8:28 PM | Reply | Permalink
Make that "the musicians of the Buena Vista Social Club would have existed as they are if not for our dismal relations".
May 26, 2008 8:32 PM | Reply | Permalink
I think that there would probably not be so many of the old USA cars if the USA had not imposed an economic blockade. Though at this point have become kind of an institution.
The Buena Vista Social Club existed because Ry Cooder went to Cuba, where he had visited earlier, in the 1990s and sought out old, once popular Cuban musicians. Ibrahim Ferrer, for instance, was shining shoes when Cooder found him. Likewise the other musicians had all retired from performing.
By the way Ruben Gonzalez's son has a restaurant in Merida, Mexico, on the Paseo Montejo, where he performs with his group, and where is displayed his father's memorabilia, including his Grammy.
May 26, 2008 10:06 PM | Reply | Permalink
So I read the op-ed. What I get out of it is Obama = Jack Kennedy and they all know how that worked out. The USA is still the evil empire he's always viewed us as, and nothing is gonna change unless Barack gives up that empire. Castro, (or his writers) are obviously very bright people but living with the specter of the USA 90 miles away all these years makes them more than a little paranoid. But sometimes just because you think people are out to get you doesn't mean they aren't. Fidel's gotta be happy it wasn't Hispanics who hijacked those planes on 9/11.
May 26, 2008 8:59 PM | Reply | Permalink
Right. But did you know that the first persons to blow up a commercial airliner and once declared by the FBI to be the most dangerous terrorists in the Western Hemisphere are living freely in Miami, thanks to George Bush Sr. and Jr.?
The 1976 bombing of a Cuban Airlines plane killed all aboard, including many members of Cuba's youth fencing team, a few North Koreans, and others.
Luis Posada Carriles and Dr. Orlando Bosch, both of whom worked for the CIA, were also involved the Washington D. C. assassination of Orlando Letelier, a diplomat of the Chilean Allende government, and in failed plans to assassinate Fidel Castro in Panama in 2000.
May 26, 2008 11:32 PM | Reply | Permalink
There are plenty of terrorists living freely in Cuba too, and Castro's regime, I would argue, has been quite a bad actor around the world for a very long time.
Certainly, the US has much to answer for in regards to its foreign policy, and seems to have abandoned our "beacon on freedom" status under the Bush Administration's watch. But let's make sure we do not use the Bush Administration's inadequacies as cover for what is still a repressive, backwards regime in Cuba.
Thank you for your vivid descriptions, they fill in a few of what are many blanks for most Americans on the issue of Cuba, myself included. I would love to hear your opinion on where we should go from here in relations with Cuba, and how to deal respectfully with the the Cuban exile community in Miami and their strong, entrenched viewpoint and political clout.
May 27, 2008 12:24 PM | Reply | Permalink
I know that Republicans are absolutely obsessed with what our enemies think.....but is there anyone out there in media-land or elsewhere that is paying a dime's worth of attention to what our FRIENDS think?
You know, they have opinions and endorsements too. Just sayin'.
May 27, 2008 7:37 AM | Reply | Permalink
The single thing would totally pooch RAUL is normalizing relations with Cuba . . . Obama's plan opens the door the fall of the Castro Regime. The only reason is demonize and blockcade is to keep the right-wing's favorite whipping boy on deck.
May 27, 2008 9:49 AM | Reply | Permalink