Bush's Cuban-American support slips

[Judi Lynn]

Bush's Cuban-American support slips: He won 81 percent of the group's vote in South Florida in 2000, but some are switching sides because of tighter travel restrictions.
By TAMARA LUSH and DAVID ADAMS
Published August 27, 2004



MIAMI - Standing in line Thursday for her charter flight to Havana, Zaida Fuentes fumed as she thought about President Bush's tougher restrictions on travel to Cuba.

"It's not right," she said of the new rule allowing Cuban-Americans to visit their families on the island once every three years instead of once a year. "Everybody has the right to see their family."

The tighter restrictions have created cracks in the once rock-solid support among Cuban-American voters for President Bush, who will hold a campaign rally today in Miami. Most Cuban-American voters still back Bush, but polls indicate his support has slipped since he won 81 percent of South Florida's Cuban-American vote in 2000.

The president has lost Fuentes. A lifelong Republican, the 57-year-old retiree has changed her party affiliation to Democrat. She plans to vote for Democratic U.S. Sen. John Kerry in November.
(snip/...)

http://www.sptimes.com/2004/08/27/Decision2004/Bush_s_Cuban_American.shtml

[JI7]

1. personally affected

the cuban americans are now being personally affected. many of these older people only saw things through their own lives. they wanted the chance to be able to go there and do things with their OWN famililies but they rarely cared about those without family in america and who could benefit from normalization of relations.

but even without this the younger generations of cuban americans are far more likely to support opening of relations anyways. they don't have much personal experience of having lived through the castro revolution and don't take things so personally but rather look at the overall situation.

[HuffleClaw]

2. "a slip?"

a 17 point drop is a 'slip'? i'd call it a 'plummmet' or 'a nosedive', but certainly not 'a slip'.

[newyawker99]

3. Hi HuffleClaw!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[struggle4progress]

4. kick

:kick:

[Barkley]

5. This should help Bush's standing with Miami Cubans

I bet the US put pressure on Panama to have them set free



http://news.findlaw.com/international/s/20040826/cubapa...

HAVANA/PANAMA CITY (Reuters) - Cuba severed diplomatic ties with Panama on Thursday in anger at its outgoing leader pardoning four Cuban exiles imprisoned for plotting to kill President Fidel Castro in 2000.

Panama's conservative President Mireya Moscoso, who leaves office next week, said she freed the Cubans for humanitarian reasons.

Three of the plotters were Cuban-born U.S. citizens and on their release they flew directly to a small airport in Miami, where they were met by their families.

[Billy Burnett]

6. FYI, Cuban Americans are not a singular block

Only a small minority of radicals support these murderers.

Please don't paint all Cuban-Americans with such a broad brush.

[Billy Burnett]

7. Bush rally: half empty

<bold mine>

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/9519303.htm

The crowd at Friday's rally was adulatory, but nearly half of the arena was empty, even after the Bush campaign went on Spanish radio to push the free tickets.

[Judi Lynn]

9. Oh, God, Billy, you've poisoned us! Help, gasp.

This article is a real load, isn't it? It DOES have some interesting things to say, if you can withstand the pure desperation oozing from the pResident's speech:

It was Bush's second visit to Florida in two weeks, indicating how close the race is likely to be in the state.
(snip)

(I heard last night that this visit to Miami was his 26th since _he stole the White House.)

He also chided Kerry for criticizing a dissident movement on the island and said the Democrat flipflopped on the Helms-Burton legislation that in 1996 tightened sanctions against Castro.

Mocking Kerry in Spanish, Bush said, ``He voted yes, then he voted no.''
(snip)

Bush also sought to court another potentially massive voting bloc: those affected by Hurricane Charley. He made his first Florid stop a visit to a Miami firehouse, where, flanked by his brother, Gov. Jeb Bush, he got a briefing and pledged to seek $2 billion in federal aid for the state.

Gov. Bush didn't accompany his brother to the rally, allowing the president to boast: ``He's working. He's doing what the people of Florida expect him to do, and that is to do his job.''
(snip/)

The bright lining in this article is the area you already highlighted. Just a few short years ago, it would have been hard to imagine a rally like this being less than fully attended, right?

Thanks for the news. I hope he's in for a big surprise from South Florida this year.

[Roy]

8. This will just boost the * poll rating, right?

More addition by subtraction.....

It seems that everytime this guy loses a part of his constituency, there is another phoney poll showing a boost in the polls.

Kerry will win this in a landslide.