In front of what the Miami Herald reported as “the largest South Florida crowd so far in the 2008 presidential race and one of the most diverse,” Senator Barack Obama reiterated his call to end the embargo on Cuban-Americans visiting or sending money to their relatives in Cuba.
Some rivals speculated that such candor reflected “inexperience” or would harm his campaign, particularly in South Florida.
But the grouposcule of 35 or 40 anti-Castro protesters that stood across the street (along with a smattering of Ron Paul-tards seeking to bathe their candidate in the bright lights upon Obama) were dwarfed by the 1,500 enthusiastic attendees that paid $30 apiece to attend Obama’s speech.
The quote of the day comes from US Rep. Carrie Meek (D-Florida), “the matriarch of Miami's black political establishment,” who sat in the front row.
''What has God wrought?" she said, "It's beyond my wildest dreams.''
Video, press reports, supporting editorials, and more at the jump…
Obama’s Miami speech was also a kind of political exorcism, which he conducted in front of a gigantic American flag reminiscent of the album cover of Bruce Springsteen’s “Born in the USA.” It was from this same auditorium that Ronald Reagan launched the demonization campaign against Castro and Cuba that led to an overwhelming Cuban-American voting bloc for the GOP for the next 26 years.
Once more, Obama shows with bold actions that what the "conventional wisdom" said couldn’t be done – in this case, breaking the GOP stranglehold on Cuban-American voters (who make up 8 percent of Florida’s electorate) – can and is being accomplished.
From the Herald report:
Obama stresses 'libertad'
BY BETH REINHARD
Barack Obama turned Saturday afternoon at Miami-Dade County Auditorium into Sunday morning at church, falling into a call-and-response rhythm with his Democratic flock and urging them to have faith in a young, black newcomer to Washington.
Many of Obama's comments echoed previous speeches, but he kept straying from the teleprompters when the audience led him. His approach lent the speech an intimacy and spontaneity rarely seen on the campaign trail…
"I'm sick and tired of the administration treating the Constitution as a nuisance to be negotiated around instead of as the foundation of our democracy," he said, and when the audience responded with a standing ovation, he added, "You don't like it, either."
The speech in Little Havana capped a week in which Cuba was thrust to the forefront of the presidential race. In a column published Tuesday in The Miami Herald, Obama called for "unrestricted rights" on Cuban-American travel and remittances to the island.
… for some of the Cuban Americans in the audience, Obama's demand makes sense.
''The damage that we would do is far less than the good Cuban Americans would do by spreading their ideas and principles,'' said Jorge Dominicis, a politically well-connected sugar executive. "Among a certain element, any sign of change is met with great resistance.''
As the speech began, National Public Radio correspondent Greg Allen reported it live:
“…recent polls show that an increasing number of Cuban-Americans are registering as Independents as well as Democrats.
“He’s talking about… lifting all restrictions for travel for Cuban-Americans to Cuba and remittances, sending money…
“He’s talking as we speak right now and his speech is going over famously. The crowd here has got a fair amount of Cubans in it… is really a Miami crowd. Many Cuban-Americans here… are impressed by Obama and the crowd is greeting him like more than just a presidential candidate, more like a rock star…”
And he added:
“Outside of the Miami Dade County Auditorium there is a huge demonstration, well, I shouldn’t say huge, there’s only about 40 people there, there but it’s a very loud demonstration by people who are very much in favor of keeping the policy the way it is… a group of people with bullhorns making a lot of noise… He is taking a bit of a political risk here but it’s just beginning and we’ll see how it plays out…”
The Associated Press reported:
“He said there are no better ambassadors for change on the communist island than the Cuban Americans who send money to relatives.
"’It can help make their families less dependent on Fidel Castro. That's the way to bring about real change in Cuba,’ Obama said. ‘It's time we had a president who realized that.’
Obama addressed the crowd of more than 1,000 four days after he submitted an opinion piece to The Miami Herald that said restrictions that limit how often Cuban Americans can travel to Cuba to visit family and how much money they can send relatives should be loosened….
Across the streets from the auditorium about 35 protesters held signs condemning Obama's stance on lifting travel restriction to Cuba… were mostly members of the extreme and marginal exile group Vigilia Mambisa….
Meanwhile in front of the auditorium, about 20 young Cuban American students waved placards in support of Obama. Among them was Giancarlo Sopo, 24. The Miami native, now a student at Harvard University, said his entire family had come to hear Obama's speech, and it was the first time his grandmother and his parents were considering voting for a Democrat.
"We've been engaged in a failed policy with Cuba for the last 50 years. And we need to change it," he said.
Sopo said he supported Obama because "he has defied conventional wisdom."
This, from the (very positive) Miami Spanish-language TV coverage:
(Even if you don't understand Spanish, it's fun to watch if only to see just how Obama's recent statements place the anti-Castro hardliners off in the same miniscule fringe corner as the Ron Paul fanatics.)
Reviews continue to come in response to Obama’s call to ease the Cuba embargo.
From Carribean Net News:
What has changed in a significant enough section of the Cuban-American community is the craving to visit Cuba and the desire to send money to remaining relatives.
Barack Obama, child of an immigrant as he is, has clearly recognised this reality…
Under the new Bush rules, Cuban-Americans can only visit the island once every three years and can only send quarterly remittances of up to $300 per household to immediate family members. Previously, they could visit once a year and send up to $3,000.
Declaring that “Cuban-American connections to family in Cuba are not only a basic right in humanitarian terms, but also our best tool for helping to foster the beginnings of grass-roots democracy on the island”, Obama stated categorically: “I will grant Cuban Americans unrestricted rights to visit family and send remittances to the island”.
This statement will clearly win him points among a significant section of the Cuban-American community in Florida.
Editorial boards are also weighing in:
From The Lakeside Ledger of Polk County, Florida:
Obama has also staked out a bold - and potentially risky - policy on Cuba. He wants to allow Cuban Americans to travel to Cuba and send money to their relatives without restrictions. Currently, the federal government limits visits to once every three years and financial aid to $100 per month.
Republicans quickly condemned Obama for a move that they say will help bolster the Fidel Castro regime. Clinton opposes lifting the travel restrictions, while saying she would support allowing more financial aid to the families.
Obama's supporters say it's an example of him offering a new approach, regardless of the political fallout.
Balsera, the Miami-based consultant, called it "forward thinking," saying Obama thinks it's more humane to help the average Cuban families as a means of eventually bringing democracy to the country.
"It's not an easy position to take in Miami, but you're seeing more and more people take it," he said.
This, from a Los Angeles Times editorial: Obama is right on Cuba
The other Democratic front-runner, New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, who portrays herself as the experienced foreign policy realist next to Obama's cowboy diplomat, wasted no time in rejecting Obama's proposal. Her campaign released a statement saying the U.S. stance toward Cuba shouldn't be altered until a post-Castro regime cleans up its act. Republican candidates Mitt Romney and Rudolph W. Giuliani, meanwhile, said Obama's plan would only strengthen Castro's oppressive government.
The astonishing thing here is that after the U.S. has tried for nearly 50 years to force a regime change in Cuba by way of economic embargo with no success whatsoever, Obama is one of the few presidential contenders who dares to suggest that it's time to try something different…
The U.S. shouldn't lift all economic sanctions on Cuba until the island's regime makes progress on democracy and human rights, but policies such as the travel ban and limits on remittances are simply counterproductive. Score one for Obama.
The South Florida Sun-Sentinel agrees:
Amid a presidential campaign 27 years ago, a candidate traveled to the outskirts of Miami's Little Havana and gave a speech that presaged a stark change in U.S. policy toward Cuba. Today, another candidate wanting to inhabit the White House comes to the same place to lay out a change in how Washington should deal with Havana.
In 1980, it was Ronald Reagan, the Republican nominee. This afternoon, it will be U.S. Sen. Barack Obama, who aspires to the Democratic nomination…
So, here comes Obama to the same hallowed hall where Reagan spoke, the Miami-Dade County Auditorium, a political equivalent of the Orange Bowl. In his speech, Obama will partially break ranks with his rivals and criticize the travel restrictions on Cuban-Americans, saying exiles and immigrants can help Cubans "become less dependent on the Castro regime," according to a published report.
The South Florida Sun-Sentinel Editorial Board has made that very argument for years. So we couldn't agree more with Obama.
From a Sun-Sentinel news report, apparently US Rep. Carrie Meek isn’t the only Florida Democratic member of Congress standing with Obama:
U.S. Rep. Robert Wexler, D-Boca Raton, an early Obama supporter, acknowledged Clinton's strong Broward support.
But as Obama becomes better known, Wexler said, he has "an enormous growth potential as a candidate." Someone as well known as Clinton may already be at or near her maximum level of support, he said.
"It's becoming clearer and clearer that Senator Obama is truly the candidate of change, and he's willing to take more risk as a candidate to enunciate policies that are different and bold," Wexler said.
County Commissioner Stacy Ritter, an Obama backer, said that approach would attract new voters.
"I believe Barack speaks to some disenchanted and disaffected Democrats," she said. "He's saying things that a lot of Democrats are thinking, but not a lot of people are saying."
On the road to Miami, Obama also drew thousands at Florida A&M University:
TALLAHASSEE — Evoking memories of bus boycotts and street protests organized by Florida A&M University students a half-century ago, Democratic presidential contender Barack Obama said Friday young people can "change the world" by reawakening that kind of idealism for him in 2008…
“Back in the '50s, student activists your age decided they were going to lead a bus boycott, decided they were going to change what was happening here in Florida. And as a consequence of those changes, we saw changes all across the nation," he said. "Well, if they can do that, there's no reason to think that we can't do that."
About 2,000 people, most of them collegians, waited for up to an hour in midday heat, waving off swarms of gnats with cardboard fans outside FAMU's Jake Gaither Gym. The famous FAMU Marching 100 preceded Obama into the rally.
Here’s a quick video clip of that moment that Obama entered the hall. Watch it and ask yourself: Does this look like a real president?
The St. Petersburg Times reported from that event:
Obama's quest: Turn support into votes
The Democrat's grass roots network is thriving.
By ALEX LEARY, Times Staff Writer
Published August 25, 2007
TALLAHASSEE - Barack Obama bounded on stage Friday to the thunder of the Florida A&M University marching band. Scanning hundreds of young faces, he shouted:
"Give it up for Andrew!"
Andrew Gillum, a FAMU grad who serves on the Tallahassee City Commission, was in the front row. "Twenty-seven and he's already a commissioner! You can just imagine what he's going to be doing in the years to come. He's a great friend."
The praise seemed like more than the standard flattery of a visiting presidential candidate for a local politician. Gillum is among the legion of volunteers who have delivered huge crowds for Obama across the country, helping shape the Illinois senator into a contender…
Meanwhile, there are 185 more graduates from Camp Obama, this time in Georgia:
Ben Turner is too young to vote, but he wasn't too young to sign up for "Camp Obama" this weekend.
Turner, 17, a Southwest DeKalb High School junior, is among about 185 people from Georgia and several other states taking part in a weekend "camp" at Morris Brown College designed to teach them how to organize grassroots campaigns for presidential aspirant and U.S. Sen. Barack Obama.
Turner was motivated to learn political organizing skills in part by problems at his high school, which he said has had malfunctioning air conditioning and crowded classes despite promises that improvements would be made.
"I've got to learn how to organize, not only for Obama, but for when something needs to be done in my own community," said Turner, who hopes to one day study law.
He said the senator offers a message of hope and change, which inspired him to become active.
"For me, Barack Obama is a symbol of what's to come, of an entire movement. Just like MLK [Martin Luther King Jr.] was a symbol for the civil rights movement, Barack Obama is a symbol of his movement."
Robert McCrum, writing for London’s Sunday Observer,observes one of the reasons why Obama is drawing support from parts of America that other campaigns had already taken for granted:
A generation on, it may be Senator Obama's graceful way with language, written and spoken, that will propel him to the front of the Democrat field. No muddle here. Obama is unusual: he has, so far, fashioned his own 'narrative'. Rule four: if you can, write your own script and keep it clean.
The narrative builds: Obama the Organizer:
CHICAGO—Far from the centers of power and privilege that have spawned so many commanders in chief, it's an unlikely place to incubate a future president. But the seemingly endless clumps of drab brick apartment buildings and patchy lawns on Chicago's South Side are where Sen. Barack Obama learned some of his most enduring lessons about politics, leadership, and the paths to social change. His experiences here, in fact, amount to a Rosetta stone that reveals the essence of the man who has catapulted out of nowhere into contention for the Democratic presidential nomination for 2008.
As a community organizer in the Altgeld Gardens public housing project in the mid-1980s, Obama, then 23, quickly emerged as a tireless and pragmatic advocate for the community—traits that characterize the kind of president he says he wants to be. "His work as a community organizer was really a defining moment in his life, not just his career," his wife, Michelle, told U.S. News. It helped him decide "how he would impact the world"—assisting people in defining their mutual interests and working together to improve their lives.
Listening. In a speech in February announcing his presidential bid, Obama said, "It was in these neighborhoods that I received the best education I ever had." His work, he added, "taught me a lot about listening to people as opposed to coming in with a predetermined agenda."
And there’s another growing narrative shaping this race: Obama is a good talker, but that’s because he’s a better listener than has run for president of the United States in a long, long time.
"What has God wrought?"
Listening.