Ryan courts Cuban-Americans in Miami

Republican vice presidential candidate, U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) and Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL) share a laugh with waitress, Lourdes Alcerro, during a campaign stop at Versailles restaurant in the Little Havana neighborhood on September 22, 2012 in Miami, Florida.

/ Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images

(CBS News) MIAMI - Seeking to bolster the Republican ticket with Latino voters, vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan pledged Saturday to be "tough on Castro, tough on Chavez," referring to Cuban and Venezuelan dictators Fidel Castro and Hugo Chavez.

Though Ryan offered no details about how he and nominee Mitt Romney would change Cuba policy, the tough talk was enough to win him a hearty round of applause from supporters gathered at the Versailles Restaurant, a Miami staple on the presidential campaign trail.

A bevy of Spanish-speaking legislators from the state, including Reps. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and Mario Diaz-Balart and his brother, former Rep. Lincoln Diaz-Balart, heaped praise on Ryan. Former Gov. Jeb Bush, and Craig Romney, the youngest of the five Romney boys and a fluent Spanish-speaker, were also on hand to warm up the crowd.

Ryan said his Cuban-American colleagues in Congress have taught him "just how brutal the Castro regime is, just how this president's policy of appeasement is not working."

"In a Mitt Romney administration, we will not keep practicing this policy of appeasement, we will be tough on this brutal dictator. All it has done is reward more despotism," Ryan said. "We will help those pro-democracy groups. We will be tough on Castro, tough on Chavez. And it's because we know that's the right policy for our country."

Romney took a similarly hard line against the Castro regime when he spoke to the U.S.-Cuba Democracy PAC here during the Florida primary in January, when he said he was anticipating Castro's death. Such rhetoric plays well with many in the Cuban-American community, who see President Obama's decision to lift the travel embargo on Cuba as benefiting Castro, because it helps the island nation's economy.

Although President Obama has consistently outperformed his GOP opponents with Hispanics in polls, Cuban-Americans are a more Republican-friendly voting bloc. Ros-Lehtinen and the Diaz-Balart brothers, prominent voices in the community, gave Romney an early boost with a November 2011 endorsement.

Mario Diaz-Balart, who has worked with Ryan on the House Budget Committee, said, "He's a person who understands what needs to get done. He is of great intellect and yet great humility." Ros-Lehtinen referred to Ryan as a "fiel amigo" - a loyal friend - on issues affecting Cuba.

Ryan also criticized Obama for saying on Thursday that a president can only change Washington from the outside, not the inside. Mr. Obama was referring to his perceived need to get the public on his side before trying to get Republicans in Congress to vote for his policies.

[msimamaji]

So Ryan is "courting" Cuban Americans in Miami. But is he telling them the truth?

After all, how many Cuban Americans depend on Social Security and Medicare. Is Ryan telling them that he is going to shut down both programs to balance the budget?

How many Cuban Americans depend on 401k's for their retirement? Is Ryan telling them that he will shut down the SEC and eliminate all of the Obama Administration's banking reforms? Is Ryan telling them that he is going to give a green light to vulture Banksters like Bain Capital, to plunder everyone's 401k?

And what about global climate change? How will rising sea levels affect property values in Miami? No lender in his or her right mind is going to underwrite a 30 year mortgage in places like Miami Beach because within 30 years those properties will wind up, quite literally, underwater.

Ryan is not really "courting" Cuban-Americans. He's conning them. The 2012 election is really a test on how gullible both Cuban Americans and the rest of us are.

If we value our future we need to re-hire President Obama and fire the entire GOP.

[CaptainSmollett]

The Cubans should remember which party betrayed them at the Bay of Pigs, and turned their nation over to Castro and communism.
It was the Democrats who looked the other way in their time of need!
It was the Democrats that betrayed them!

[Jaylah54200]

So Ryan finally woke up to the fact that Mitt had alienated the Hispanic vote, huh?

I'm sure promising to start wars with Cuba and Venezuela will go down big with most voters.

One of the big problems is that Romney and Ryan keep telling each particular audience what they want to hear. And the problem with that is that, when you do that, you tend to **** off everybody else. Somehow they both think they're speaking in a vacuum.

[taylorsucram]

The ignorance of many Americans is simply ASTOUNDING! I am a Vietnam Veteran and over 50,000 of my fellow soldiers were killed in Vietnam by the Vietnamese. We now buy catfish, shrimp, tennis shoes and a whole host of consumer goods made by COMMUNIST VIETNAM.

Cuba never did anything to me and simply because 80% of the population LOOKS LIKE ME (I'm black), America has a problem with Cuba.

THIS NONSENSE HAS GOT TO END ... THEY HAVE FREE MEDICAL CARE AND FREE COLLEGE EDUCATION (IF YOU AREN'T STUPID).

[ludvig1-2009]

Can't he just invade Grenada again so Clint can make a sequel?

[mikesfilms]

He'll just tell them he's going to bomb Castro and he'll put them in his pocket.

[touria55]

Amazing how these delusional racists jerks cling hopelessly to the idea that one day they will go to Cuba and return it to the days of Batista.
Batista, was a brutal self hating mulato dicator, who pandered to Italian and Jewish mobs types that had no respect for the people of the island, reducing them to peasants and prostitutes.
These Cuban Exiles suffer from a plantation mentality, that anyone white is good no matter how corrupt and destructive, and people with darker skins should remain poor and subserviant, even though their own grandparents were probably black.

Working in mainstream media, even going to Florida to cover the Elian
story, I saw first hand these same Cuban Americans stomp the American flag and cursed this country because this child was returned to his father.
Fact: Elian was much further ahead educationally than the American children his same age.
Fact: If everything about this story remained the same, except that Elian's skin was two shades darker, we would not be discussing this story.

[taylorsucram]

YOU ARE RIGHT ON EVERY DETAIL !

[rksharma-2009]

Republicans foreign policy for Chevez and Castro is drop the pant and stand in front. There is nothing that these people have done in the past that can be called a policy. As far as Cuba is concerned, the Cuban Americans are stupid that they continue to be a road block between USA and Cuba and are the enemies of the Cuban people. It is time the USA should have an open trade policy with Cuba and allow the US businessman to invest in Cuba. It is beautiful country and its people deserve to have a better life. By opening up trade is the only way we can dilute dictatorship in Cuba for good. US is too strong to be afraid of Cuba, and Cuba is too weak to be a threat to America. Cuban American need to grow up and be more sensible and initiate better relationship between the two countries.

[Retired_in_Va]

He won't do anything with Chavea, he controls all the oil in Venezuela and the Republicans will not kill a golden goose. An no one has done anything to Cuba in the past 50 years, so does he think they (Romney and Ryan) can do anything. I do not think so. So much false promises.

[Retired_in_Va]

He won't do anything with Chavea, he controls all the oil in Venezuela and the Republicans will not kill a golden goose. An no one has done anything to Cuba in the past 50 years, so does he think they (Romney and Ryan) can do anything. I do not think so. So much false promises.

[tdr2006]

how do you know ,ummm you a psychic , or you dont believe in given chances to no one new here , since Obama hasnt came through on much of his promises , you telling us our future hmmmm !!! no thanks I'm good.

[signseeker1717]

tdr, It helps to actually have familiarity with the subject before commenting: Romney/Ryan are using Cold War rhetoric to try to suck in the Cold War vestigial Cuban-American Miami voters, since they are DISMAL at attracting the majority of Latino voters elsewhere in the country.

"Appeasement" has long meant "soft on communism".

Does that language ring a bell?

Are we in the early 1960s or the 21st century?