Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro visited Cuban leader Fidel Castro for two and a half hours in his home in Havana, Cuba on March 19, 2016. (AFP Photo/VTV/Getty Images)
Washington Post: Here’s why Obama didn’t meet Fidel Castro in Cuba
HAVANA -- Amid all the history-making in the Cuban capital this week, there is one landmark event that will not take place. Both Cuban and U.S. officials have made clear there will be no meeting between President Obama and former Cuban President Fidel Castro.
“Neither we nor the Cubans have pursued such a meeting,” Obama deputy national security adviser Ben Rhodes told reporters last week. Obama, he said, “will be meeting with Raúl Castro as President of Cuba. That’s the appropriate government-to-government engagement, and so that’s what he’ll be pursuing.”
Assuming Fidel Castro — for decades the international embodiment of anti-Yanqui anti-imperialism —even wanted to meet with Obama, it would be bad optics for the administration. The White House sees the visit as the pinnacle of Obama’s forward-looking policy of international engagement. Raúl Castro, who grinned and gripped Obama’s hand when they met Monday, is the face for U.S. normalization with Cuba.
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WNU Editor: For people on the left .... meeting Fidel is like a monarchist meeting the Queen, a Catholic meeting the Pope, or a groupie meeting his (or her) rock star. If the Cubans had asked President Obama if he wanted to meet Fidel .... he would not only say yes, but he would also show up early for the appointment. And as for the picture that would be taken .... it will be placed predominantly somewhere in his post-White House home.
4 comments:
Editor,
What you said regarding a meeting between Fidel Castro and President Obama would be true if, in fact, the current POTUS was left wing in his outlook. A real examination of his policies to date will prove that President Obama is every bit as right wing as his predecessors and every bit as imperialistic.
They should have arrested the big SOB for crimes against humanity as soon as he got off of the plane. I would of.
In President Obama's mind .... he is a leftist. Just like in President Bush's mind .... he is a conservative. In practice neither is correct .... but that is their mindset. As to their heroes .... for someone like President Obama and with those that he likes to socialize with (whether from Hollywood and/or his political friends) .... Fidel is near the top of their bucket list to meet.
WNU,
You want the word 'prominently' not predominantly I think. I hesitate to point it out because I speak not a lick of Russian.
I think Obama wants to be a Leftist and he is not smart enough t know what works or does not. He is not quant. But he has handlers ... forces within his party.
Editor, President Obama's mindset is to look good; political ideology be damned. He's even better than Bill Clinton at selling himself as some kind of progressive...groupies notwithstanding. Castro recognizes boeuf masquerading as beef wouldn't meet (much less trust) him. As someone said on another blog, the Cubans should hide the silver.
I guess his O'ness will just have to settle for the adoration and attention of those like the fawning simple Canadians who lined up for photo ops during his first visit (another barf inducing moment in Canadian history; right up there with Brian Brown Paper Bag Mulroney singing When Irish Eyes Are Smiling with Reagan -- cough wretch--).
Bush was nuts but still conservative enough to pick Condi Rice for State, who, in turn, was conservative enough to put the brakes on Dick Darth Vader Chenney's bid to rule the planet.
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