The Candidates
(Hat Tips to Captains Quarters)
From the Miami Herald:
People chuckled when presidential candidate Mitt Romney, a Mormon raised in Michigan and elected in Massachusetts, bungled the names of Cuban-American politicians during a recent speech in Miami.
But when he mistakenly associated Fidel Castro’s trademark speech-ending slogan — Patria o muerte, venceremos! — with a free Cuba, listeners didn’t laugh. They winced.
Castro has closed his speeches with the phrase — in English, ”Fatherland or death, we shall overcome” — for decades.
Now the actual speech:
“I said at the outset that the threat in Latin America is unprecedented. I say that because the Castros have a second tyrant and he has great wealth, from oil. We must stand just as firm against caudillos like Hugo Chavez, tutored by Fidel Castro. Chavez and Castro are brothers in blood, intent on personal gratification at the expense of their people. Hugo Chavez and Fidel Castro have stolen the phrase ‘Patria o muerte, venceremos.’ This phrase should not be used by dictators, but by liberators.
“There are two spheres of influence in the Western Hemisphere. One is dark, bellicose and spreads misery by denying people basic freedoms; the other shines like a powerful light, is peaceful and wants only for its people to live in liberty and prosper.”
You be the judge…
March 21st, 2007 at 10:19 am
[...] post by Jason and software by Elliott [...]
March 21st, 2007 at 1:04 pm
Huh?
In what sense did Castro “steal” the phrase? He has used it for 50 years. Was it a common phrase amongst some other group of Cuban politicians back in the 50s when Castro started using it?
Mitt has apparently relied on some people who are really clueless. Not the end of the world, of course - but it is what it is.
And anyway, where do you get this “actual speech”? Is it from some recording?
Myabe it is what Mitt meant to say, but he flubbed the line?
Maybe it is what he meant to say, retrospectivly?
March 21st, 2007 at 2:03 pm
Maybe Mitt should get his positions on domestic issues straight before he venture out into foreign policy?
http://youtube.com/watch?v=ShaapLjc09Y&mode=related&search=
I know he has the right the flip as much as he wants to fit the conservative voters he’s pandering to, but what’s to prevent him from flipping back to being a lib if he’s elected?
March 21st, 2007 at 2:43 pm
Am I missing something here? Romney says that a phrase used by Castro would sound better coming from a liberator of a free Cuba, not the dictator of a Communist Cuba. This got turned into an anti-Romney thing? Huh???
March 21st, 2007 at 3:13 pm
Jake,
Let me try to explain. I live in Miami(unfortunately). You are talking about Cubans here. It does not matter how you meant it to sound, its how they wanted to interpret it!!! And when it comes to their beloved CUBA and despised Castro…….watch out!
March 21st, 2007 at 3:30 pm
PS… Surprise - - now all of a sudden McCain is trying to woo the cuban vote here….hmmm, wonder how that happened(???)
March 21st, 2007 at 3:53 pm
I’ve been to Miami a million times and they do not like Castro…at all.
March 21st, 2007 at 4:02 pm
Yeah but I don’t get what was so wrong about what he said. The Miami Herald says that Romney “mistakenly associated (the phrase) with a free Cuba.” But according to the actual speech quoted above, Romney was just saying that Castro and Chavez have corrupted the phrase to suit their own dictatorial thirst for power, and that it applies more to liberators than dictators. I don’t see how this can possibly be interpreted as a blunder on Romney’s part. Seems to me he was purposely making a good point.
As for McCain, of course he is tring to woo the Cubans. What Republican doesn’t? That’s how you win in Florida. McCain can’t be attacked for ignoring one group (conservatives) and at the same time be attacked for wooing another (Cubans).