All politics is local. If it wasn’t, these comments Ozzie Guillen made in 2008 to Rick Telander in a Men’s Journal interview would have been pounced on then. But since Guillen was not representing Miami back then, Telander notes, it went virtually unnoticed:
I asked him this: “Who’s the toughest man you know?’’
His response, which took me by surprise: “Fidel Castro.’’
Why?
“He’s a bull—- dictator and everybody’s against him, and he still survives, has power. Still has a country behind him,’’ Ozzie replied. “Everywhere he goes, they roll out the red carpet. I don’t admire his philosophy; I admire him.’’
It’s the same thing he said to Time. Maybe a bit more of a “don’t agree with his policies” disclaimer, but the same sentiment. And if he made it in Miami, boy howdy, would that have been trouble.