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Cuba’s Fidel Castro derides GOP field as “greatest competition of idiocy and ignorance” ever seen

By Laura Rozen | The Envoy – Wed, Jan 25, 2012

Cuban leader Fidel Castro turned over power to his brother in 2011. (AP)

Cuba's Fidel Castro weighed in on the GOP field Wednesday ahead of next week's Florida GOP primary vote.

The former Cuban leader, 85, whose 1959 Communist takeover of the island nation prompted the exodus of many of those whose families now comprise Florida's politically influential Cuban American community, took to official state media organs to blast the Republican primary contest, the Associated Press's man in Havana Paul Haven reported.

"The selection of a Republican candidate for the presidency of this globalized and expansive empire is—and I mean this seriously—the greatest competition of idiocy and ignorance that has ever been," Castro wrote in an opinion column carried by a Cuban state paper, Haven wrote.

Castro officially stepped down as the head of the country's communist party last year, turning power over to his brother Raul Castro. His brother officially succeeded him as Cuba's president in 2008.

But the aging revolutionary still exerts a powerful psychological hold on Florida's Cuban America community---and thus on local and national politics. He has managed to outlast eleven U.S. administrations.

Asked at Monday's Tampa GOP primary debate what he would do if he got a 3 a.m. call that Castro had died, Mitt Romney responded that he would "thank Heavens" that Castro had at last "returned to his maker."

"I don't think Fidel's going to meet his maker," Newt Gingrich replied. "I think he's going to go to the other place."

Gingrich, speaking Wednesday at Florida International University, chastised President Obama for supporting the Arab spring pro-democracy revolutions, while not calling for a "Cuban spring" closer to home.

"I don't think it occurs to a single person in the White House to look south and propose a Cuban spring," Gingrich said in the speech to the Florida International University College Republicans, the Miami Herald reported.

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985 comments

scarface • Miami, Florida • 3 mths ago
Hmmmm, Im glad he took notice of this and spoke about it. Atleast now, we can see for once that the way people perceive this country isn't exactly good. Now I sure hope these money hungry, business minded, ultra conservative, right winged, religious fanatic idiots running the house can for once atleast agree on something. I mean thats all we want right? A nice friendly house who wants to let things run smooth and not let greed get in the way. I hope its like this.
Gary • Salt Lake City, Utah • 4 mths ago
And Newt and Mitt just proved him correct !!!!!!!!
- guillotinetheelites 3 mths ago
  just? look at their whole careers.
I'm Suprised • Waukegan, Illinois • 4 mths ago
If the Christian right vote for Newt, it shows hypocrisy runs deep in the veins of so called Christ like Americans.
- Dolton 4 mths ago
  If the demoncrat left votes for obama, it shows they can't be hypocrites because you first have to have values to qualify.
richard • 4 mths ago
Castro is only saying what most of us are thinking. The world wakes up and tunes in to see what this once Great Nation has screwed up. Its embarrassing to watch. Grown men and women in Congress forgeting they are there to make this nation a success, not make a name for themselves. These are only words of frustration, won't help in solving the problem
Mark • Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania • 4 mths ago
OMG...I have to agree with him.. What is the world coming to. When are Americans going to wake up from their drunken drug induced fog and realize that we are throwing away the greatest nation in history, for reality shows and games on smartphones, facebook...There are more important things going on. VOTE NOW TO GET THESE IDIOTS OFF THE BALLOT. Lets start over with real candidates not picked by the media
- R 4 mths ago
  I think we should all rewatch the movie Idiocracy - very funny, but a sad picture of future reality
Kim • 4 mths ago
Politicans in this country are what I call a classic example of the McDonaldization of decision making. They have a limited menu of choices that they decide from and any new thinking is not on their menu and fall out side of their intellectual capabilities
- Jim 4 mths ago
  I love your concept. Good job!
- Boodica 4 mths ago
  In the US, there are two choices: democrat and republican
  
  Lots of wiggle room there, isn't there?
- Embil 4 mths ago
  Boodica, no there isn't; Both are bad for this nation. Wonder how Canada is doing these days?
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Reply
JO • 4 mths ago
Between the internet and the US media, people from all over the world see the US as really screwed up country.
- Michael 4 mths ago
  But they continue to flood in here, don't they?
- Joe 4 mths ago
  @ Michael: Flood in here? Actually no, not as before and many have left and are continuing to leave.
- Joshua 4 mths ago
  Perhaps, but other countries are even more screwed up.
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Rich • 4 mths ago
I am a lifelong conservative Republican, anti-dictatorship and pro-democracy advocate. But the 85-year-old Castro is not incorrect when he writes: "The selection of a Republican candidate for the presidency of this globalized and expansive empire is...the greatest competition of idiocy and ignorance that has ever been." If my party, the Republican Party, can project right-wing insider thugs Romney, Gingrich, and Santorum as its three top candidates for president, then I believe democracy-loving Americans, not just Fidel Castro, need to become critics, for the sake of America, an America that, in its two-party political system, richly deserves an alternative to thugs who will sell any part of our country to the highest bidder and make any statement designed to garner votes. It is, after all, because of right-wing thugs like these within the world's superpower that a small, nearby island's dictatorship can survive for all these decades, and will likey ride the Castro legacy decades more following his death from extreme old age. He has his critics on the island but right=wing thugs like Romney make him preferable to a return of a foreign, right=wing dictatorship. When Romney makes his anti-Castro diatribes in South Florida, the man standing behind him is Lincoln Diaz-Balart, one of the entrenched political sons of Rafael Diaz=Balart, the former key minister in the Batista=Mafia dictatorship in Cuba. Even ordinary Cubans (yes, I've been to Cuba) notice such things although Americans are not supposed to notice and, surely, not supposed to connect the dots. So, please, God...I'm a conservative Republican but give Obama four more years!
RobM • 4 mths ago
It's pretty #$%$ bad when I find myself agreeing with Fidel Castro, but unfortunately what he said is absolutely true.
g • 4 mths ago
You know you have it bad when Castro is making fun of you.
David • 4 mths ago
People on the outside looking in are usually right.
John • 4 mths ago
You are right on, Fidel!
denisicle • 4 mths ago
I agree with Fidel.
I ROBOT • Los Angeles, California • 4 mths ago
AND THE WHOLE WORLD IS WATCHING!!!!!!!!!
Palm • Orlando, Florida • 4 mths ago
Sad days America. Where are the real leaders of this GREAT Nation. It's still great but for how much longer???
1America • 4 mths ago
So, GOP, ask yourself honestly. Who is making America look bad in the world?
gofer • 4 mths ago
Its bad when a dictator says that.
Richard • Frankfurt Am Main, Germany • 4 mths ago
Not just Castro but Europe feels the same!
soaring eagle • 4 mths ago
I am sure the whole world is laughing at the idiots vying for the republican nomination.
Daniel Mackler • 4 mths ago
incidentally, castro may be a creep and a freak, but he's right here....

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