by Mark Silva
John McCain, who spent five and a half years as a prisoner of war in a Communist prison, is wasting no time cementing an alliance with an essential voting bloc that fled the Communist regime and political prisons of Fidel Castro.
The Republican candidate for president is airing a campaign radio ad, in Spanish, in South Florida with a surrogate, a former Cuban prisoner, voicing McCain's solidarity with the exile community and refusal to show the government of Raul Castro an inch of compromise.
The inference, of course, is that Democrat Barack Obama is ready for reconciliation with the Castro regime, fighting words in a South Florida exile community where Democrats have been fighting for years to regain a foothold lost after the failed Bay of Pigs invasion during the Kennedy administration.
Former President Bill Clinton gained the most ground, in his reelection bid, claiming 40 percent of the Cuban-American vote, and with it Florida, in 1996. Any candidate who hopes to claim Florida this year will be intent on maximizing that Cuban vote, albeit a dwindling share of a broader and increasingly diversifying Hispanic vote throughout other regions of Florida that is more Democratic.
Spanish radio is a powerful force in Miami. McCain is going up.
The McCain ad opens with Roberto Martin Perez, "Cuban political prisoner for 28 years. The harsh reality is that millions of my fellow Cuban citizens are prisoners in their own country,'' he says, in an English translation of the ad. "Despite this, our spirit remains resilient; and John McCain knows that Raul Castro is like his brother, a man that does almost anything to stay in power, violating the fundamental rights of Cubans.''.''
"Now, he allows them to use cell phones and computers, but at the same time, censors the right to speak. While some support a dialogue with Raul Castro, John McCain believes we should support the courageous men and women who continue to stand up for freedom in Cuba.
"Rather than resume relations with Raul Castro, John McCain wants first and foremost for all political prisoners to be released. As someone who has survived the harsh conditions of the Vietnamese prisons, John McCain knows that freedom in Cuba won't be achieved with concessions to dictatorships.''
McCain closes with the requisite identifier and approval.
The McCain campaign also offers some history on the star of its radio appeal:
"In August of 1959, the Castro regime imprisoned 24 year old Roberto Martin Perez. He was held as a political prisoner for 28 years, including 18 years in solitary confinement. In prison, he was cruelly tortured and shot six times. He was knows as a "plantado" -- a political prisoner who resisted the Castro regime's "rehabilitation program" by refusing to wear the uniforms of common prisoners and spent 22 years in their underwear. Since his exile from Cuba in 1988, he has dedicated his life to fighting for the freedom of the Cuban people.''
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Comments
This is the motherlode of McCain hypocrisy.
It was none other that John McCain who co-sponsored the legislation that brought about the normalization of relations with Vietnam in the 1990s.
McCain plays ball with communist Vietnam and communist China, but it's little old Cuba that's too big a threat to recognize.
John McCain redlines today's panderbear-o-meter!
Posted by: Doug Zook | June 11, 2008 8:29 AM
Writing in this style, "in a communist prison," sounds like a mind still trapped in the Cold War and witch hunts.
Do you know which country imprisons the highest portion of its population in the entire world?
Why, it's the good old USA.
By the way, McCain spent five and a half years in prison in Vietnam for the act of bombing civilians. He was bombing civilians around Hanoi at the time he was shot down.
Doesn't actually sound dark or unfair to me.
Now, add the fact that the US holocaust in Vietnam (about 3 million slaughtered) was carried on without so much as the nicety of a declaration of war.
Under international law, bombing civilians in an undeclared war is, quite simply, a war crime.
Posted by: John Chuckman, Toronto, Canada | June 11, 2008 8:39 AM
John McCain is probably the most famous POW in the World. But that hardly makes him the preeminent expert on national defense. In fact, one could argue that he did not do a very good job defending America. Having graduated near the bottom of his class at the AF Academy big questions could be raised about his competence as a fighter pilot, a job which normally draws from the best and brightest of airmen. However, he is given the benefit of the doubt and accorded rightly deserved hero status even if we stand to be bludgeoned to death with this part of his bio. But getting the blessing of exiled Cubans whose numbers are decreasing through attrition may not help Johnny Mack very much. It would be interesting to see how he fares with the Vietnamese American population who were refuged here. Is John going after the Vietnamese vote?
Posted by: GW | June 11, 2008 12:45 PM