The economic dichotomy of the Castro brothers and Obama

Flopping Aces ^ | 09-14-10 | Mataharley

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It was just days ago when a little heralded story by McClatchy hit the news with a stunning headline - "Fidel Castro says Cuba's economy is broken". The offhand statement was made to The Atlantic Magazine's correspondent, Jeffrey Goldberg... who then failed to press the former Cuban dictator more in depth.

According to Goldberg's blog, Castro replied, "The Cuban model doesn't even work for us anymore."

Goldberg didn't pry into Castro's surprising statement, but said he believes it was clear what the aging leader meant.

"He said it in an off-hand way, but not jokingly," Goldberg wrote The Miami Herald in an e-mail Wednesday. "I think this was an honest recognition on his part that his brother must re-order Cuban's economic system in order to keep the country afloat."

Perhaps, had Goldberg done a better job of reporting, we wouldn't find Castro, furiously backpedaling on his comment, saying:

"I expressed it to him without bitterness or worry. It's funny to me now how he interpreted it, word for word, and how he consulted with Julia Sweig, who accompanied him and gave a theory," Castro told those assembled. "The reality is, my answer meant the opposite of what both American journalists interpreted about the Cuban model."