Bush Bashes Cuba: The 2004 Election Must be Nearing

[Say_What]

<clips>

October 15, 2003

It's a tired old horse, but the Bush administration never tires of beating Cuba with its bully stick whenever the political opportunity arises. That's what President George W. Bush did with his announcement last week of a laundry list of tough new measures to clamp down harder on the U.S. embargo on Cuba.

These would include a crackdown on illegal travel, more thorough inspections of people and shipments going to and from Havana and the stemming of an "illicit sex trade" surrounding Cuba's tourism industry. Bush says his tougher line is "intended to hasten the arrival of a new, free, democratic Cuba." And if Bush truly believes that, he is smoking something more illegal than Cuban cigars.

This kind of rhetoric on Cuba from a sitting president - particularly a Republican one - usually means he is revving up his re-election campaign machine with an eye toward the Florida vote, especially the influential Cuban- American voting bloc in South Florida, which despises any candidate who dares to be soft on Fidel Castro. Florida, of course, gave Bush the electoral votes he needed to become president.

It's never too early for Republican planners to start placating the anti-Castro crowd, which has been grumbling lately that Bush has paid too much attention to creating democracy in the Middle East and hasn't done enough to foster democratic change in Cuba.

<http://www.newsday.com/news/opinion/ny-vpcub153495457oct15,0,1956811.story?coll=ny-editorials-headlines>

[Cheviot]

1. Americans of all stripes would love to see Castro go

I hardly see this is a pro-GOP position

[realFedUp]

2. Welcome Cheviot

I don't this it's our business when he goes.