Figured we could all use some good news for a change...HAVANA -- A new photograph released Friday shows Fidel Castro looking less gaunt than in his last image two months ago, but the ailing Cuban leader said he doubts he'll make it to the end of Barack Obama's four-year term.
...and then big tears rolled down his cheeks.
Castro, 82, hasn't been seen in public since undergoing abdominal surgery in July 2006, and he formally turned over the presidency to his brother Raul last year. On Thursday night, he instructed Cuban officials to start making decisions without taking him into account. In a column titled "Reflections of Comrade Fidel," he suggested his days are numbered, saying Cuban officials "shouldn't feel bound by my occasional 'Reflections,' my state of health or my death."
Okay, El Jefe, we'll do that...
"I have had the rare privilege of observing events over such a long time. I receive information and meditate calmly on those events," he wrote. "I expect I won't enjoy that privilege in four years, when Obama's first presidential term has ended."
Okay, El Jefe...
"I have reduced the 'Reflections' as I had planned this year, so I won't interfere or get in the way of the (Communist) Party or government comrades in the constant decisions they must make," he wrote.
Okay, El Jefe, we get it, okay?
Despite stepping down from the presidency after nearly a half-century as Cuba's supreme leader, Castro's periodic essays have continued to carry weight. They are diligently read in full at the top of midday and nightly radio and television newscasts before any other national or international story.
Coming up next..."Who Wants to be a Hundredaire", followed by "Chico and the Man". Then your local news. Again.
The bulk of the column was devoted to praising Obama, the 11th U.S. president since the Cuban revolution, in part for his decision to close the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay. Castro recalled his thoughts Tuesday as he watched Obama assume the "leadership of the empire. The intelligent and noble face of the first black president of the United States ... had transformed itself under the inspiration of Abraham Lincoln and Martin Luther King into a living symbol of the American dream," he wrote.
Wow. He could have a show on MSNBC...
Castro praised Obama as honest, writing: "No one could doubt the sincerity of his words when he affirms that he will convert his country into a model of freedom, respect for human rights in the world and the independence of other nations."
Ah, if only I was 20 years younger. I could have him for lunch...
However, Castro suggested Obama would succumb to threats greater than his own qualities: "What will he do soon, when the immense power that he has taken in his hands is absolutely useless to overcome the unsolvable, antagonistic contradictions of the (American) system?"
I guess he din't hear about "Hope" and "Change"?