Here is a nice comparison made by Al Sharpton in a CBS interview with Bob Schieffer. IN a discussion about Fidel Castro, Schieffer noted that Sharpton had the following to say about the tyrant:
“He’s brilliant. I’ve never met anyone with a more rapid mind. He’s reasonable and intelligent.”
The discussion then went as follows:
SCHIEFFER: Well, Reverend Sharpton, if I may, you describe Castro as `awesome,’ and if you’re talking about leadership qualities, the reason that Fidel Castro has outlasted nine American presidents is because he doesn’t allow his people to have elections. And when he has political opponents, he puts them in jail. Why would you cite that as a…
SHARPTON: And if that is so…
SCHIEFFER: Why would you cite that as a leadership quality?
SHARPTON: No, well, first of all, I think that Winston Churchill was an imperialist. I think Ronald Reagan turned the country backwards. I think Fidel Castro has done a lot wrong.
When I talk about qualities of a personality, it does not at all support, condone or endorse their policies. And I think that clearly you must be able to divorce the character of people, in terms of their personality traits, from policy so that you can say to people ‘This is how good attributes can be used wrongly.’ Electricity can be good or bad.
SCHIEFFER: But…
SHARPTON: So me to observe someone’s awesome personality doesn’t mean they’re using it in a positive way and that’s what that chapter was about. But I’m glad you read the book.
SCHIEFFER: So you don’t admire him putting his political opponents in jail. You don’t consider that awesome.
SHARPTON: I don’t admire him — I don’t admire him putting his political opponents in jail anymore than I admire the Bush administration for locking us up for protesting in Vieques. I think people should have the right…
SCHIEFFER: Now…
SHARPTON: …to protest in Cuba and in the United States.
SCHIEFFER: Now, Mr. Sharpton, you’re not going to sit here and compare President Bush to Fidel Castro, are you?
SHARPTON: Absolutely not.
Castro and Bush- why they are just the same to the Democrats. Except they admire Castro.
Susan
Does Sharpton know that in Cuba the “darker skin” Cubans endure and suffer the most under Castro’s oppressive regime? From what I understand, most of the 73 dissidents arrested earlier this year were black.
Just a thought, I find it hysterical that ANSWER is a great supporter of Castro’s “utopia”
John Cole
From what I can tell, Sharpton doesn’t appear to “know” much of anything.