Democrats are in mourning everywhere. They have lost their cult hero. This loss on top of the Trump victory and down-ticket wipeout may cause some ‘crats to jump off tall buildings.
Obama’s ‘legacy’ drive lost Florida for Clinton
By Mike Gonzalez
November 11, 2016 | 9:17pm
‘Pride goeth before destruction,” Proverbs 16:18 reminds us, and so it was in this election.
The evidence is mounting that President Obama’s overzealous defense of his “opening Cuba” gambit cost Hillary Clinton the state of Florida. That misstep could end up wiping out most of the president’s carefully curated “legacy” achievements.
For the president and his young Deputy National Security Adviser Ben Rhodes, the establishment of diplomatic relations with one of the world’s last communist dictatorships became something they weirdly defended from any criticism. Even the smallest amendment that watered down coddling the Castros drew fulminating threats of vetoes from the White House.
Then in late October, President Obama went for broke and decided to stick a bigger needle in his opponents’ eye.
He lifted limits on the import of cigars and rum, and then ordered our ambassador to the United Nations to abstain from a vote condemning the US economic embargo on Cuba.
That UN directive was especially galling. President Obama was, in fact, venting his frustration with Congress for not lifting the embargo upon his command — which Congress has the right to refuse to do — by letting the world body mock US law unopposed.
The Cuban-American community in Miami was irritated enough to give a second look to Donald Trump, who quickly reacted by shifting from his earlier tepid support for Obama’s Cuba policy to a promise that he would end relations unless Raul Castro began democratic reforms.
A New York Times-Siena poll, headlined “Cubans Come Home to Trump,” confirmed that all this was enough to add almost 20 percentage points to Trump’s support among Cuban-Americans.
Trump voters in this group shot from 33 percent in September to 52 percent just a few days before the election, according to the poll. And there is evidence they may have voted even in larger numbers for Trump.
Various exit polls put Cuban-Americans as supporting Trump over Clinton by a 53-41 percent clip, while analyses of Cuban-American precincts puts the support closer to 60-40.
http://nypost.com/2016/11/11/obamas-legacy-drive-lost-florida-for-clinton/
“Fidel Castro is a genius!” gushed Jack Nicholson after a visit with the Cuban Führer in 1998. “We spoke about everything,” the actor rhapsodized further. “Castro is a humanist like President Clinton. Cuba is simply a paradise!” Jack Nicholson has been saying such things for years now. Many of his Hollywood cohorts follow suit.
“Socialism works. I think Cuba might prove that” (Chevy Chase).
“Castro is very selfless and moral, one of the world’s wisest men” (Oliver Stone).
“If you believe in freedom, if you believe in justice, if you believe in democracy, you have no choice but to support Fidel Castro!” (Harry Belafonte).
“It was an experience of a lifetime to sit only a few feet away from him (Castro)” Kevin Costner.
“The eight most important hours of my life,” Stephen Spielberg describing his dinner with Castro.”
Of course, none of them actually want to live there.