Cuba (Almost) Libre: Top 5 Cuban Moments From The Daily Show and The Colbert Report

Since 1958, Cuba, home to 11 million people and 15 million pounds of ropa vieja, has been the most dangerous country in the world. But all that is about to change. President Obama signed an executive order over the weekend allowing American Cubans unrestricted travel back to their homeland and the ability to bring American stuff with them. And once the Schlitz and gogurt starts flowing in, democracy can't be too far behind.

To honor this sorta kinda normalizing of relations, we found some sorta kinda good clips about Cuba from The Daily Show and Colbert:

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Tags: Cuba, Fidel Castro, Jon Stewart, Michael Moore, Stephen Colbert, The Colbert Report, The Daily Show, Video

Barack Obama Locks Down the Cuban Vote

While a lot of political reporters have been focusing on the swing-voting Cuban-Americans of South Florida, NBC News decided to go one further… and ask actual Cubans about the U.S. Presidential race!

Turns out they're not exactly swing-voters.

Hands-down, the average Cuban prefers Obama to McCain – believing that he is the more likely candidate to loosen trade and travel restrictions while engaging the Cuban government.

In our own informal NBC News survey of 100 people in downtown Havana, 63 said they preferred Obama to McCain, two preferred McCain, 13 had no preference and 22 declined to answer.

Yikes! So that's 63% to 2%. Makes even the poll numbers in Vermont look tight.

The average Cuban seems to be more enthusiastic about Obama than is their leader, Fidel Castro, who endorsed the Democrat for the presidency back in May, but only because he was "the most-advanced candidate."

John McCain shouldn't be too worried about these developments. First of all, citizens of Cuba aren't allowed to vote in U.S. elections.

Secondly, they love him in Albania!

Tags: Barack Obama, Cuba, Florida, John McCain

Countdown to Electiony: 90 Days

Were you aware that a mere 90 miles of ocean separates the beautiful, Democratic, capitalist American soil of Key West, Florida from the sultry, godless-Catholic, Guajiro-dancing, cigar-smoking, Socialist threat that is Cuba?

Not sufficiently frightened out of your pantalones? Well, how about now?

Okay, then how about now?

Go Back to Day 91.

Tags: Communism, Cuba, Election Countdown

Indecision Internationale: Irrelevant Latin American Dictator With Inexplicable, Permanent Stranglehold on the National Imagination News Alert!

It seems ailing Cuban leader Fidel Castro, tired of having his face photoshopped onto healthier and healthier looking bodies, is finally calling it quits.

Fidel Castro stepped down Tuesday morning as the president of Cuba after a long illness. The announcement was made in a letter to the nation written by Mr. Castro and published early Tuesday morning on the Web site of Granma, the official publication of the Cuban Communist Party.

Cue the gnashing o'the teeth and the crumblin' o'the infrastructure.

Now, just days before the national assembly is to meet to select a new head of state, Mr. Castro resigned permanently, and signaled his willingness to let a younger generation assume power.

Ah hah, nevermind! The revolution isn't dead. It's just getting a youthful makeover. But is Cuba really ready to turn over the reins of government to a generation weaned on Cab Calloway and big band jazz that never knew a world without transistor radio?

In late July 2006, Mr. Castro, who is 81, handed over power temporarily to his brother, Raúl Castro, 76… the announcement puts Raul Castro in the position to be anointed as the Cuban head of state when the National Assembly meets on Sunday.

So with a slightly less old, slightly less communist guy at the helm, it seems now would be the time to, you know, reverse that ol' counterproductive, decades-old embargo. How 'bout it, leadership of the free world?

The Bush administration today ruled out any immediate change in policy toward Cuba despite Fidel Castro's resignation as president, deriding his brother and heir apparent, Raul, as "dictator-lite."

Or, you know, we could keep on keeping on.

Tags: Cuba