McCain -- Out of touch with Cuban Americans?

Bitek

Lifer
Aug 2, 2001
10,647
5,220
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John McCain -- Out of touch with Cuban Americans?

When Democratic presidential front-runner Barack Obama told a Miami gathering he would lift restrictions on travel to communist Cuba by Cuban Americans, he was met with cheers.

Just a few years ago, his comments to the Cuban American National Foundation on Friday might have triggered a riot.

But Miami's Little Havana, heartland of exile opposition to former Cuban President Fidel Castro since his revolution nearly 50 years ago, has undergone sweeping changes.

...At a town hall meeting on Monday, McCain drew loud jeers from a staunchly Republican crowd when he said that Obama would "sit down unconditionally for a presidential meeting with Raul Castro -- an unconditional meeting."

In response, however, Obama said talks he has suggested might occur with Cuba's new leader, Raul Castro, who took over from his brother Fidel Castro this year, would only involve the tough but direct diplomacy he has said he might engage in with other problem nations.

"I know what the easy thing to do is for American politicians when he or she comes down to Miami. Every four years they come down, they talk tough and then they go back to Washington and nothing changes in Cuba," he said on Friday.

"That's what John McCain did the other day. He joined the parade of politicians who make the same empty promises year after year, decade after decade."

His stance might just strike a chord.

According to Bendixen & Associates, 72 percent of Cuban Americans questioned answered "yes" in a survey two years ago when asked if they would favor U.S. negotiations with a new Cuban government that showed an interest in an improvement in relations with the Cuban exile community.

So far, nearly 50 yrs of American policy of isolation in response to Castro has left Castro comfortably in charge of Cuba for his long life, and allowed him to hand off control to his brother. Castro will eventually die in office, possibly under the next president, perhaps its time to review of Cuba policy and take some different tacks. Opening up Cuba to American influence, culture, goods and businesses may accomplish what McCain's Cold War thinking has failed to produce in a half century. The Castro regime has been able to survive the passage of time in part due to the cocoon we have encased the fledgling island nation in IMO.
 

OutHouse

Lifer
Jun 5, 2000
36,413
616
126
Wtf is a cuban-american?

Cuba is not isolated. they do trade with many many countries. if you want a cuban cigar, just go to canada.
 

jpeyton

Moderator in SFF, Notebooks, Pre-Built/Barebones
Moderator
Aug 23, 2003
25,375
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Cuba is a sad little shadow of its former self. It no longer resembles the nation we isolated ourselves from, and its people no longer want to be isolated from us.

Isolationism isn't a popular movement anymore. Americans, by and large, want to be part of the world community.

Sidney McSame has already made it clear he plans on taking diplomacy out to the shed and putting a double-tap in its chest.

Cubans are going to rally around Obama, because they want improved relations, they want to be able to see their families, and they want Cuba welcomed back into the international community and become a freer society.

Lofty goals? Of course. But one candidate is at least leaving the option of improved Cuban-American relations on the table. The other one could care less.
 

Lemon law

Lifer
Nov 6, 2005
20,984
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0
I think we are missing another factor, many of the first generation Cuban's who fled Cuba when Castro took over, wanted to see the day when Cuba was liberated so they could return and repress the other Cubans like they did before. To them it was Bapista =good and Castro=evil. Of course for the average Cuban who stayed, their lives improved because the Castro government tried to fair in distributing the nations wealth instead of giving it to only the rich like Bapista did.

And for years, we had a south Florida policy and not a Cuban policy to cater to that group's fantasies. What is new is the fact that first generation group has largely died out and their children have no desire to return to Cuba and resume a life as a colonial baron. But they still have an extended family with many still in Cuba. Many of those first generation types would be rolling in their graves if they knew what Obama was suggesting, but they are dead and they no longer matter. And for that second and third generation Cuban Americans, Obama and not McCain is singing the right tune.
 

BoomerD

No Lifer
Feb 26, 2006
62,679
11,023
136
Would this mean that the US will stop accepting every Cuban that happens to swim ashore? :D

i'm all for normalizing relations with Cuba. We now suck up to the Chinese, (the biggest Communist country in the world, we're normalizing relations with Vietnam, a country that we actually went to war against, why not Cuba? I'd like an easy source of Cuban cigars...and would even consider vacationing there.
 

fskimospy

Elite Member
Mar 10, 2006
83,717
47,406
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Originally posted by: BoomerD
Would this mean that the US will stop accepting every Cuban that happens to swim ashore? :D

i'm all for normalizing relations with Cuba. We now suck up to the Chinese, (the biggest Communist country in the world, we're normalizing relations with Vietnam, a country that we actually went to war against, why not Cuba? I'd like an easy source of Cuban cigars...and would even consider vacationing there.

Honestly I'm all for having more islands in the Caribbean to visit. They're awesome. I also think that opening up the country to more commerce, more communication, and more interaction with America is the fastest and least bloody way to send our good friends Fidel and Raul packing. To me this is a no brainer.
 

senseamp

Lifer
Feb 5, 2006
35,785
6,187
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The main thing that makes me wants to visit Cuba is that it's stuck in its socialist state, which is interesting.
Although I agree with Hussein Osama that we should probably end the failed policy.
 

Born2bwire

Diamond Member
Oct 28, 2005
9,840
6
71
How does an old white guy that spent his youth fighting communists in jungles ever get in touch with Cubans in the first place?
 

Thump553

Lifer
Jun 2, 2000
12,651
2,394
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I think Lemon Law hit it pretty much on the head.

Remember, though, that this is still a pretty Republican group. According to a blurb I saw on TV (probably CNN or MSNBC) on this speech, the best a Dem candidate has done with this group in recent history was Bill Clinton's second term when he drew 35%.

Unfortunately, Joe Lieberman will scare many of the elderly Jewish retirees over to McCain's side, which will probably more than conterbalance this. I don't think any serious Dem strategist considers Florida to really be in play this time around (despite Hillary's fantasies to the contrary).
 

Fern

Elite Member
Sep 30, 2003
26,907
173
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Originally posted by: Hafen
-snip-
Opening up Cuba to American influence, culture, goods and businesses may accomplish what McCain's Cold War thinking has failed to produce in a half century. The Castro regime has been able to survive the passage of time in part due to the cocoon we have encased the fledgling island nation in IMO.

Cuba has been open to all types of influence. It's a popular tourist destination for Europeans, and has been for a longtime. Also Cuban Americans have been visiting there for a long time too. Not sure what more we (non-Cuban) Americans could add to it.

No, they are not in a cocoon and never have been; AFAIK, it's just the USA that doesn't trade with them.

But we'll see if the Cuban American's attitudes really have changed. H3ll, the way that survey is phrased I can't belive the response was 100% "yes".

According to Bendixen & Associates, 72 percent of Cuban Americans questioned answered "yes" in a survey two years ago when asked if they would favor U.S. negotiations with a new Cuban government that showed an interest in an improvement in relations with the Cuban exile community.

And, BTW, they don't yet have a "new" government", nor have they shown any interest I'm aware of with improving relations.

If there is some dissatisfaction, I think it may primarily stem from the recent restrictions on visits by Cubam Americans to Cuba. When I was living in Miami, they could easily go as often as they wanted to visit relative (or do anything else they wanted for that matter). Now they can only to visit relatives once every 3 years. However, I think those restrictions were suggested by Ciban American themselves. Our Cuba policy, IMO, has been almost exclusively driven by the Cuba Americans thenselves.

I think the article is of questionable accuracy.

Fern
 

magomago

Lifer
Sep 28, 2002
10,973
14
76
Originally posted by: senseamp
The main thing that makes me wants to visit Cuba is that it's stuck in its socialist state, which is interesting.
Although I agree with Hussein Osama that we should probably end the failed policy.

I'm not gungho for Obama, but you are such a sheep
 

jpeyton

Moderator in SFF, Notebooks, Pre-Built/Barebones
Moderator
Aug 23, 2003
25,375
142
116
Originally posted by: magomago
Originally posted by: senseamp
The main thing that makes me wants to visit Cuba is that it's stuck in its socialist state, which is interesting.
Although I agree with Hussein Osama that we should probably end the failed policy.

I'm not gungho for Obama, but you are such a sheep
Desperate times call for desperate measures. And I can't think of anyone more desperate right now than a Hillary supporter or a Republican on the November ballot.
 

Butterbean

Banned
Oct 12, 2006
918
1
0
Originally posted by: Skoorb
Again Obama on the right page with this.


Obama would be a Castro fan. People have even noticed how similar Mrs Obama's speeches are compared to Che the executioner:

Michelle O'Drama:

"We live in isolation, and because of that isolation, we fear one another . . . [Barack Obama] is going to demand that you shed your cynicism, that you put down your division, that you come out of your isolation.""

Che the executioner:

"The most important revolutionary aspiration is to see human beings liberated from their alienation. Lack of education makes [some] take the solitary road toward satisfying their own personal ambitions " .


"Che Guevara Connection in Obama Camp"
http://www.newsmax.com/fontova.../2008/03/04/77631.html


The reason Hamas, Farrakhan, Sharpton, Jackson, Wright, Ortega, Ayers etc all endores Obama is because hes one of them. That's why he talks to slow because hes always fighting to not let the truth slip and needs to speak carefully. He's a weirdo