http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/us_usa_election_cuba HAVANA (Reuters) – U.S. President-elect Barack Obama's promise of change reached across the Florida Straits on Tuesday as Cubans said his victory over John McCain gave them hope for better relations with the United States and improvement in their own lives.
Obama's campaign vow to ease the 46-year-old U.S. trade embargo against Cuba and his willingness to consider dialogue with the Cuban government were a breath of fresh air after almost eight years of tough talk and hard-line policies from the Bush administration, Cubans said.
"I think with Obama we will have some improvement. We're going to breathe a little, because if the other (McCain) had won we would be in bad shape -- and not just the Cubans," said housewife Cristina Recio, 50.
"With Obama, there has to be a relaxing of the policy toward Cuba because he has at least promised to change things such as ending restrictions on trips to Cuba (by Americans) and that will be good for everyone," restaurant employee Diego Lopez, 41, said.
Communist Cuba and the United States are worlds apart politically and have been at odds since the 1959 revolution that put Fidel Castro in power, but only the Florida Straits, 90 miles across, separate the countries that were once closely allied.
In a column published on Tuesday in state-run media, former Cuban leader Fidel Castro declared himself neutral in the race, but blasted away at McCain while mostly praising Obama.
Obama, Castro wrote, is "without doubt more intelligent, cultured and calm than his Republican adversary."
The 72-year-old McCain, the ailing 82-year-old said, is "old, bellicose, uncultured, not very intelligent and not healthy."
Cubans were wary of hoping that Obama's win could eventually bring an end to the U.S. embargo, which the Cuban government blames for many of its problems, but admitted they were ready for an end to 50 years of tense U.S.-Cuba relations.
nice analogy rob!
