One of the reasons that Ricard M. Daley is tolerated as Mayor-for-life of the city of Chicago is that he gets the snow cleared off of the streets, sometimes even before it lands. There are certain city services that must be delivered, and delivered well, to stay in office. Michael Bilandic learned that lesson the hard way.
Fidel Castro is another leader-for-life tolerated by the governed. One of the reasons is that he sees to it that no one is left stranded in harms way in the face of a hurricane, especially a category 5 hurricane like Ivan of 2004. Using buses and amphibious tanks his government saw to it that the 1.3 million people that needed to be moved were moved. Not a single life was lost. Yes the storm changed course and only grazed the island. Yet even Florida lost lives in a recent category 1 version of Katrina.
A lot of people don't like Daley and a lot of people don't like Castro. But as politicians they know when and where their bread is buttered.
Deadly Ivan pummels western Cuba
(Crossposted at SoapBlox/Chicago)