GOP Hopes to Hold on to Florida's Cubans

Source: Associated Press

GOP Hopes to Hold on to Florida's Cubans
By LAURA WIDES-MUNOZ – 6 hours ago

MIAMI (AP) — For nearly a decade, Republican presidential candidates have counted on Florida's Cuban-American community to win the state and, with it, the presidency.

This year's hopefuls are again making the rounds in Little Havana and on Miami's Spanish-language radio, mixing criticism of Fidel Castro's Cuban regime with scathing comments about Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.

But this once fail-safe plan has become more risky as Florida's increasingly diverse Hispanic community no longer guarantees a monolithic vote. Of the state's estimated 3 million Hispanics, Cubans represent a third. Puerto Ricans and Mexicans, more traditionally Democratic voters, make up another third, and Central and South Americans round out the group.

Meanwhile, Democrats, who after former President Clinton all but ceded the Cuban-American vote, are courting the community with renewed vigor while also using Florida as a platform to reach out to Hispanics nationwide.



Read more: http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5gv5M0b_QCBfpfXrCTQktUrBQbUMg

that led to the revolution in Cuba. Keep taking their advice, GOP.

Here's a quote which was published first in the paper in Spain, "El País," and picked up and repeated in the Miami Herald, from the little Cuban blowhard, the "godfather," of Miami, who imagined himself in control of ALL things Cuban here, who believed he would one day be the President of Cuba!

7/31/94 The Miami Herald reprints an interview with Jorge Mas Canosa from the Spanish newspaper El Pais. Mas Canosa was asked by El Pais whether he believed Americans would take over Cuba if Fidel Castro fell. The Herald quoted Mas Canosa as saying, in part, "They haven't even been able to take over Miami! If we have kicked them out of here, how could they possibly take over our own country?" (MH, 7/28/94; WP, 7/28/94)
(snip)

http://64.233.161.104/search?q=cache:xQqmOHDYWkoJ:cuban-exile.com/doc_126-150/doc0146b.html+Jorge+Mas+Canosa+%22El+Pais%22+%22They+haven%27t+even+been+able+to+take+over+Miami%22&hl=en

Gave money to Bush.

Regrets it sooooooo much.

While I'm sure that some Cuban Americans are willing to consider voting Democratic, I think that some Democrats are wasting their time trying to court the hard-liners. Hard-line Cuban exiles who have blamed the Democrats for the failure of the Bay of Pigs invasion and everything since then and repeat GOP/Right-wing propaganda machine talking points verbatim are NOT likely to change over from their previous voting patterns.

Senator Clinton would do better to listen to US-born Cuban-Americans and more recently-arrived Cuban immigrants, as well as to the much higher population of non-Cuban origin American voters and drop her support for US government-imposed trade and travel restrictions with Cuba.

Jorge Mas Canosa, the founder of the hard line CANF, was a chief fundraiser for the Clinton campaign for his 2nd term.

Pandering to the hard liners does pay off. It works for Joe Lieberman, Susan Wasserman Schultz, Robert Wexler, and other dems.
Hillary and Obama are battling over who is tougher on Castro when they're in S Florida. Money is the hand in the puppet.



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