Obama’s latest ‘endorsement’

Jorge Rey/Getty Images

As the presumptive Democratic nominee for president, Barack Obama may continue to suffer from, of all things, a likability problem. Two weeks after John McCain pounced on favorable remarks made by a Hamas spokesperson that seemed to identify Obama as the group’s preferred candidate, the junior senator from Illinois received another endorsement of sorts, this time from Fidel Castro.

A Reuters story yesterday cited an op-ed written by the retired Cuban leader:

In one of his periodic newspaper columns published in Communist Party newspaper Granma, Castro said he had ‘no personal rancor’ toward Obama, but ‘if I defended him I would do a huge favor for his adversaries.’

Castro went on to call Obama “a strong candidate” as well as “the most progressive candidate” from “the social and human points of view.”

Although Castro was highly critical of Obama’s plans to continue the 50-year-old embargo, it’s a safe bet that the McCain camp was not altogether disappointed with Fidel’s comments.