Obama Gets Valued Castro Kudos

I missed this news from Monday (so shoot me), but it merits repeating: Fidel Castro has picked Barack Obama as "the most-advanced candidate in the presidential race."

It wasn't quite a full-on endorsement since Castro's not happy with Obama's call for a continued (though loosened) Cuba boycott, but it's clear Castro thinks he's got more in common with Obama than either Hillary or McCain.

The Obama campaign should be able to tweak Castro's kudos enough to use it along with their valuable Hamas and Michael Moore endorsements. That'll shore up support from the whacko Left (as if they need it). And hey, since Obama's included Raul Castro with Ahmadinejad as blood-soaked despots he'll talk to without condition, he just might be able to get a full endorsement yet.

Cuba Inching Closer To Freedom?

A few demonstrators are out in Miami's Cuban community, marking the blessed end of the dictatorial rule of Fidel Castro, who announced his resignation early this morning.

The news, thus far, has not been met with large demonstrations, either in Miami or Cuba. Perhaps we have learned not to hope for much with Cuba, especially with Raul Castro taking over the government, promising only "modest" reform -- in a country where the average wage is $18 a month!

Speaking in Rwanda -- a country that knows a thing or two about brutal rule -- President Bush was upbeat, calling on the world to help move Cuba towards democracy:

"The international community should work with the Cuban people to begin to build institutions that are necessary for democracy," he said. "Eventually, this transition ought to lead to free and fair elections — and I mean free, and I mean fair — not these kind of staged elections that the Castro brothers try to foist off as true democracy."

If that dream turns out to be just a short way off, I'll be surprised. It's been a long time since the Berlin Wall fell overnight. Despots have adapted, figuring out how to hold onto power in a world that no longer welcomes them.

But even so, a world without Fidel Castro is a better world.