Cubans in Miami cheer McCain denuciation of Obama-Castro meeting

AP:

Republican John McCain, speaking to a raucous crowd on Cuba's independence day, hammered Democrat Barack Obama for saying he would meet with President Raul Castro and called Obama a "tool of organized labor" for opposing a Latin American trade deal.

For a second day, McCain criticized Obama for saying, in a debate last year, that as president he would meet with the leaders of Cuba, Iran and Venezuela without preconditions.

McCain insisted such a meeting could endanger national security, sounding a theme that is likely to persist until the November general election.

The Arizona senator recalled the ridicule President Carter faced in 1979 when he kissed Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev during the signing of an arms treaty.

"Carter went over and kissed Brezhnev, remember?" McCain said Tuesday in Miami. "So it's dangerous; it's dangerous to American national security if you sit down and give respect and prestige to leaders of countries that are bent on your destruction or the destruction of other countries. I won't do it, my friends."

A woman in the audience applauded McCain's position: "For that, believe me, Florida will be yours," Ninoska Perez Castellon told McCain. She is a radio commentator for the anti-Castro station Radio Mambi.

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On Tuesday, dozens of people at McCain's town-hall style forum booed as he raised the notion of a meeting with Castro, and they gave McCain a standing ovation when he said that, as president, he would pressure Castro to release political prisoners unconditionally, schedule internationally monitored elections, and legalize political parties, unions and free media.

McCain also criticized Obama for shifting his stance on the trade embargo against Cuba; Obama said in 2003 he would lift it but has hardened his position slightly to say he would ease it. McCain argues trade should not be normalized until the basic freedoms he outlined are granted.

Marking the Cuban independence day, May 20, McCain visited Miami's Little Havana, stopping at Casa del Preso, or the house of the prisoner, which helps unite Cuban political prisoners, and Versailles Restaurant, where an aide got him takeout Cuban sandwiches.

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McCain also criticized Obama for opposing a free trade deal with Columbia that could benefit Florida's agriculture and manufacturing industries. The pact, blocked by Congress, would eliminate high barriers facing American exports to Columbia. Most Colombian products already enter the U.S. duty-free.

In an interview with local reporters on his campaign bus, McCain said Obama "is a tool of organized labor ... He's been against (trade agreements with) Colombia, South Korea and several others. That's what labor unions want, no free trade agreements."

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I am not sure why Democrats thought they had a shot at the Cuban vote this year, but they clearly don't with Obama running for Jimmy Carter's second term. McCain also has a much saner position on free trade than the Democrats. The Dems have sold out their principals to the labor bosses.