Last week when Barack Obama was campaigning in Florida, Elian Gonzalez’s family
protested during an address Obama made to the U.S. Conference of Mayors in Miami. Their beef? Two people on Obama’s team: Foreign policy adviser Greg Craig, who represented Elian’s father eight years ago and Eric Holder, a member of Obama’s vice-presidential selection team, who was deputy U.S. attorney general when government agents seized Elian at gunpoint from his relatives’ home in Miami. Today, that home is a museum—a fact that has been made national news as of last week. We saw it Friday on CNN and then noticed a story about it in the Miami Herald yesterday. The above photo and the one on the next page are from that story.

So it seems that for some Cuban-Americans, a group that historically votes Republican, Obama’s fate could be tied up in an event that happened eight years ago. And most likely not coincidentally, news also reached America last week that now 14 year-old Elian just took the oath of Young Communist Union in his homeland, vowing to stay loyal to the Castro regime. (Salt, meet wound.) Seems like someone out there is worried about winning over the Hispanic vote and is trying to raise the issue of just how immigrant friendly the Dems are. Unfortunately for whoever that is, most Hispanics in this country are about as sympathetic to Cuban immigration as any other American. Maybe even less so. After all, why do Cubans get the wet feet-dry feet rule when the rest of Latin America doesn’t? Because Castro served our asses at the Bay of Pigs and revenge is a bitch, that’s why. As for Obama, his response to all this hoo-ha according to ABC News’ Jake Tapper’s blog is this:

That was eight years ago. Obviously it was a wrenching situation for the families involved, but I’m running for president in 2008, and my focus is on how do we create a US-Cuba policy that will create political freedom on that island and allow the people who live there to prosper. That’s not what we have right now and I outlined just as recently as a month ago an extensive approach that I think can lead to liberty in Cuba.

Now, telling someone who’s hurt to just get over it because that was a long time ago doesn’t usually work, but if Obama can win over the normal Hispanics (you know, the ones who vote Democrat) this little anomaly shouldn’t really matter. But then again, a lot more than Cuban Hispanics voted Republican last time and look at the mess we’re in now.

Deconstructing Obama’s Friday Press Conference [Political Punch, ABC NEWS]
A visit to the Elian Little Havana museum [Cuban Colada, Miami Herald]
Elian Gonzales: Still a factor in Florida [The Swamp, Chicago Tribune]