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McCain hopes for Castro's speedy demise
2008-02-22
Presumptive Republican nominee John McCain Friday said he hoped Fidel Castro's resignation would be followed by his speedy demise, and rapped Democrat Barack Obama for offering talks with Cuba's next leader. "Fidel Castro announced that he would not remain as president -- whatever that means," McCain said in Indianapolis. "And I hope that he has the opportunity to meet Karl Marx very soon. "But the point is, the point is that apparently he's trying to groom his brother Raul. My friends, Raul is worse in many respects than Fidel was." In a formal written statement, McCain also took a shot at Obama, the Democratic front-runner who renewed his offer to speak to leaders of US foes without preconditions in a campaign debate with rival Hillary Clinton in Texas. "So Raul Castro gets an audience with an American president, and all the prestige such a meeting confers, without having to release political prisoners, allow free media, political parties, and labor unions, or schedule internationally monitored free elections," McCain said. "Senator Obama says he would meet Cuba's dictator without any such steps in the hope that talk will make things better for Cuba's oppressed people. "Meet, talk, and hope may be a sound approach in a state legislature, but it is dangerously naive in international diplomacy where the oppressed look to America for hope and adversaries wish us ill." Obama hit back in his own strongly-worded statement. "John McCain would give us four more years of the same Bush-McCain policies that have failed US interests and the Cuban people for the last 50 years," he said. "My policy will be based on the principle of liberty for the Cuban people, and I will seek that goal through strong and direct presidential diplomacy, and an immediate change in policy to allow for unlimited family visitation and remittances to the island. "I am confident that the American people will choose the promise of the future over the failed policies and predictable political attacks of the past." Obama said during the debate on Thursday it was important for the United States to have contact with its enemies. "I recall what John F. Kennedy said: we should never negotiate out of fear, but never fear to negotiate. This opportunity that Fidel Castro has finally stepped down I think is one that we should take advantage of."
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