Coast to Coast Support for Obama Today (Updated)

As Barack Obama prepares to make his appearance today at the Miami-Dade County Auditorium, two editorials from the Sun-Sentinel and the LA Times are published in support of his recently publicized Cuba policy. Both editorials are posted on the Cuba Journal Blog, in full.

Also, a protest opposed to Obama's Cuba policy is planned for 2pm, organized by Vigilia Mambisa.
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[Updated - Aug. 27, 2007]

So, I drove by on Saturday, around 2:30 pm, to see how the Vigilia Mambisa protest was going. And, I was honestly surprised by what I saw: Ron Paul supporters!

The demonstration by Ron Paul supporters definitely took me by surprise, especially by the fact that they were as much present as the Vigilia Mambisa protesters (both across the street from the Miami-Dade County Auditorium). According to Beth Reinhard and AP's Brendan Farrington, there must've been from 25 to 35 members of Vigilia Mambisa.

Since there was hardly any coverage of the Ron Paul demonstration, according to their own reports there were possibly around 50 demonstrators for Ron Paul. By my estimate (from ONCE driving by) there were as many Ron Paul demonstrators as Vigilia Mambisa.

While I do not support the political positions of Ron Paul, I do want to commend the activism displayed by his supporters on Saturday, and their admirable commitment to the democratic political process. According to their MeetUp.com page, Ron Paul supporters have been organizing meetings throughout Miami, even at the well-known Versailles Restaurant this past Aug. 6 where they seem to have had a decent turn out.

What is also interesting is the fact that the Ron Paul demonstrators this past Saturday got very little notice by the local media, despite their equal presence next to Vigilia Mambisa. Reinhard from the Herald never mentions them in her report or blog, CBS4 news does not mention them, and neither does NBC6 or Local10 news.

On the other hand, the Spanish local news (Univision and Telemundo) did mention the Ron Paul demonstration, but both gave more coverage to Vigilia Mambisa. One Ron Paul supporter has already posted the coverage of the local Spanish networks on YouTube, you can see for yourself how fair the TV coverage was.

In my opinion, the Ron Paul supporters deserved a lot more attention by the local news, especially since they took the effort to organize themselves and demonstrate out in the hot Miami afternoon, just like Vigilia Mambisa.

Ron Paul supporters are scheduling another demonstration for September 3 at a Miami-Dade Democratic Party picnic, and another meeting at the Versailles Restaurant on September 10. Since Ron Paul also believes that the US Embargo on Cuba should be lifted, and that we should have talks with official enemies, will Vigilia Mambisa protest Ron Paul?

[CBS4 News has the unedited video of Barack Obama's speech this past Saturday.]