On of off Cuba Ping.
Posted on 10/31/2004 5:45:00 PM PST by freedom44
MIAMI, Oct 31 (AFP) - US President George W. Bush vowed Sunday to "keep the pressure on" to rid Cuba of Fidel Castro, an appeal to the hard-line Cuban exiles Bush counted on to win Florida and the White House.
"I strongly believe the people of Cuba should be free from the tyrant," Bush told a crowd of supporters here two days before the election, winning the rally's loudest cheers and chants of "Viva Bush" -- long live Bush.
"Over the next four years, we will continue to press hard and ensure that the gift of freedom finally reaches the men and women of Cuba," he said. "We will not rest, we will keep the pressure on, until the Cuban people enjoy the same freedoms in Havana they received here in America."
The crowd packed into the Coconut Grove Convention Center cheered, screamed and applauded, waving pro-Bush signs in English and Spanish and chanting "four more years!"
Like most Republican candidates in Florida, Bush's hopes of victory here rest in large part on the support of the state's sizeable anti-Castro Cuban exile community.
Earlier speakers had fired up the audience with attacks on Democratic White House hopeful John Kerry, with one asking "who do the enemies of America favor?" and then thanking Bush for the global war on terrorism.
The president was to make three stops in this pivotal state before going to another critical battleground state: Ohio, without which no modern Republican has won the White House.
Before Bush arrived in Miami, a small army of speakers -- including Mexican-born actress and singer Lucia Mendez -- who extolled him and attacked Kerry as the crowd swelled to a few thousand.
Republican Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen pointed to elections in Afghanistan and plans for elections in Iraq and said that Bush was committed to "help bring about that same freedom, that same democracy ... to the oppressed and long-suffering people of Cuba."
Freedom for Cuba bump.
Give Fidel's latest mishap...I suggest banana peels, and lots of them. Fitting for the ruler of a banana republic...
On the other hand Fidel is so ancient I bet he's gone soon no matter what.
Called pandering.
Please add me to your Cuba ping list
Bush won Florida with what he said. I really think so!
We don't think so. Pandering is pretty much defined as saying you'll do something for someone when not having the slightest intention of carrying through. Bush gererally, and I think, always keeps his word if at all possible.
?.....The White House to send Castro roller skates for Christmas?
:-)
The President should have some real fun with that ol' paranoid Fidel, like making a statement along the lines of "We have been working behind the scene on sending the Castro regime tumbling down with our invisble lines..." Shoot, as soon as I saw Castro taking that fall, I thought "I bet he has his secret police checking that stage for wires..."
He supposedly had Florida by 5-8, what's with the polls today?
It's not "cynical" at all to call this pandering. Even when the old boy goes to the big gulag in the sky, I don't see Cuba returning to it's former "semi-colonial" status under the U.S. (yeah, I know how that phrase sounds, but it's the best I can do right now). I think Cuba's decision to stop using U.S. dollars has a lot to do with post-Castro thinking... the Europeans and the Mexicans are the foreign players in Cuba who count. The Miamai guys, I'm afraid, are SOL.
This could be interpreted by some as gross pandering.
Bush didn't promise anything. Headline is in error.
Ping
"Viva Bush"!
It will be a better day when Castro is gone...good riddance. I only hope that the freedom-loving Cubans in Florida know enough about the history of John Kerry to realize that he is not the person who will be on their side (unless, of course, he can personally benefit from them).
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