WP: Bush's Hard Line Loses Cuban Moderates

Thursday, November 11, 2004; 10:30 PM

After the 2000 presidential election, Cuban-American bragged that they put President Bush in the White House—and with good reason. Bush won Florida, and therefore the presidency, thanks in large part to capturing 82 percent of the Cuban-American vote.

Bush demonstrated his gratitude quickly. Three months into office he nominated Otto Reich, a Cuban-American and prominent anti-Castro figure, as assistant secretary of state for Western Hemisphere affairs. Reich could not win confirmation, yet Bush continued to name others with similar credentials to posts throughout his administration. The popular perception both here and in Latin America was that U.S. policy toward the region would take a very definite anti-Castro bent.

After 9/11, Bush officials such as John R. Bolton, undersecretary of state for arms control and international security, began calling Castro an imminent terrorist threat. Although the label failed to stick, it did create the illusion that the Bush administration was going to do something drastic about Castro.

As the 2004 election approached, Bush again heated up the rhetoric against Castro. He formed a presidential commission chaired by Secretary of State Colin Powell that produced a 500-page report with recommendations to accelerate the transition toward a free Cuba.

The heat seemed to pay off when Bush took Florida again this year. But closer scrutiny of the numbers shows that a growing number of some Cuban-American voters, the GOP's most reliable Latino base, walked away from Bush.

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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A43237-2004Nov11.html?sub=AR

I think a bunch of people who voted for W are publicly disavowing their support. Jerks.

Now is the time to collect on his gratitude.

The truth is they didn't vote for him but it didn't matter because Jeb stole their votes for Georgie, too.

Why are all these people who say they didn't vote for George liars, but the machines and the Republicans, both known for lack of veracity, are instantly believed?

Who the hell is left to vote for bush?

Blacks -- no they know that bush isn't on their side.

Women -- no --the majority went for Kerry.

The list goes on and on as each story breaks.

And yet the cognitive dissonance of the stories doesn't tell the corporate media that there is something deeply stinky (dead animal stinky that dogs love to roll in) wrong.

Or perhaps the slow trickle of these stories is the only way the grunt level reporter have of reporting the coup?

Bush was illegally put into office since he is part of the Illuminati pushing their agenda forward.

Gotcha.

Really, just garden-variety fascists.

you're too kind with your words.

If a portion of the Cubans in Florida go home, will Bush/Republicans lose a significant chunk of their Florida base?

I don't know much about Florida or its Cuba situation, but I thought I would ask.

and visit Cuba often, while the more recent immigrants will most probably go back. There are many Cubans here who are well established and there is no way I see them starting all over again in Cuba.

Bush's hardline could mean bad news for their loved ones
over the water.

you will ever meet. Believe me, I live among them and am Cuban myself. If you don't think the same way they do about anything political, you're labeled a communist right away. They do believe Bush was (s)elected in 2000 and 2004 because of them. The younger Cubans are more open minded and slowly but surely sympathizing more with the Democratic ideas.

I'm an Anglo, but I confess that I do wonder what the voter ratio would be if truly free elections were held in Cuba. I'd bet that the ratio of social democrat and social democrat-leaning island Cuban voters to genuine reactionaries is at least nine to one, and even if the most hardcore of the Republican-affiliated Cuban exiles went back to vote, the social darwinists would still lose the election by a landslide.