White House spokesman Robert Gibbs says he's unaware that Fidel Castro is a big fan of President Obama's health care bill.
"I have not seen that statement," Gibbs said, asked today whether Obama was grateful for Castro's remarks that Cubans "consider health reform to have been an important battle and a success of Obama's government."
Told it was out there, Gibbs suggested to the reporter, "he probably e-mailed you directly."
"I am unaware that he's aware of the statement," Gibbs said of Obama.
Castro's comments did not escape 2008 vice presidential hopeful Sarah Palin. Campaigning recently for John McCain, she joked, "When it comes to Obamacare, I see Fidel Castro likes Obamacare and we don't. Doesn't that tell you something?"

I've noticed that there seems to be a lot of people on the right who said, during the beginning of the health care reform proposals, that, while of course our health insurance situation is completely broken, with millions of people uninsured, insurance rates skyrocketing every 6 months, denials of service becoming the standard, but that they believed that it should be a "bi-partisan" effort, rather than the Democrats and Obama deciding on how to proceed.
Those of us not wearing the special wingnut blinders were able to see how many Republican suggestions were included in the bills before Congress, yet not one vote for the bill was ever proffered.
Now, we see the completely dishonest right-wing in all it's glory; now they don't see any problem with how the system was before the Democrats took majority control, and the cries about how, once again, the insurance reforms are being shoved down our throats are echoed in lockstep.
Here's another point never voiced by the right; while they love to point to the polls showing the majority opposes this bill, they neglect to mention that large portion of those in opposition are those, like me, who feel this bill is not even close to reform, because there is still no real competition, and in fact, the mandate makes it even less likely that prices will stabilize. We oppose this bill because Single Payer was taken off the table before any debate began, and Obama, it now is revealed, made back room deals that assured the insurance industry that the Public Option would be sunk.
Yeah, a lot of us who don't support the bill, do so because it ain't socialist enough!
Posted by: trog69 | April 08, 2010 at 09:13 AM
Such a favorable statement could be made by a communist dictator about Obama anywhere, anytime -- then get picked up by every major new outlet around the globe and shouted from every rooftop man has ever built -- and Gibbs/Obama would still pretend they 'didn't hear it or see it.' Heck, they've been ignoring the vast majority of American citizens themselves for over a year now, who've been screaming themselves hoarse that they didn't want this smelly health scare deform...why should Gibbs/Obama acknowledge the praise of a Leninist dictator?
Posted by: Lee | April 07, 2010 at 10:27 PM
robert gibbs is woefully unaware of many things. its a job requirement for the obamanations staff
Posted by: randja | April 07, 2010 at 10:00 PM