Fidel Obama

It's amazing to me how much traction the patently ridiculous notion that Obama is going to be another Fidel Castro has in the Miami area. I've encountered numerous people - even well-educated ones - who buy into this ludicrousness, and the only reason why I can fathom it is that, to many Cuban voters, the most important aspect of any candidate is their relationship to Cuba. Obama's a Democrat, the party of Bay of Pigs fumbler JFK, so he's already essentially disqualified for that reason; add to that a comment like "redistributing wealth" and it's Viva la Revolucion. There is no relationship between Obama's history of centrism and Cuban-style communism, but to rile up the bitter old men who sip cafe con leches on Calle Ocho, Obama is being regularly compared to the man who is to Miami Cubans what Hitler is to the rest of the world.

This canard has been circulating for a while among people here, but it's appalling that a senator would make the same completely false comparison. However, this seems to be consistent with the GOP's strategy of drumming up irrational fear about Obama: not only is he an Anti-American, Muslim, and terrorist sympathizer - he is also a communist in disguise.

Ironic, too, that the GOP recently oversaw the biggest socialization of the banking sector in American history. McCain is just as much of a socialist as Obama on this huge count. Offhand comments about "redistributing wealth" aside, the GOP-led government over the last eight years has asserted its muscle into the lives of ordinary Americans in ways that would make Fidel Castro jealous: illegal incarceration at Guantanamo (Cuba!), wire-tapping of citizens, state-sanctioned torture, intimidation and purging at the polls... all of this has a lot more in common with Cuban-style communist totalitarianism than Obama's comments to Joe the Plumber. Senator Martinez and other Cuban-Americans should take a closer look at their own party before declaring Barack Obama the next Fidel Castro.