The three leading White House candidates have weighed in on Fidel Castro’s exit from power in Cuba, with all of them saying the longtime dictator’s departure is not enough to bring freedom to communist Cuba.

Democrat Barack Obama said the U.S. could consider easing its embargo on Cuba - but only if Castro’s departure means democratic change.

“Fidel Castro’s stepping down is an essential first step, but it is sadly insufficient in bringing freedom to Cuba,” the Illinois senator said.

Barack Obama called for the swift release of Cuban political prisoners, and said the island nation’s future should be “determined by the Cuban people and not by an anti-democratic successor regime.”

“If the Cuban leadership begins opening Cuba to democratic change, the United States must be prepared to begin taking steps to normalize relations and to ease the embargo of the last five decades,” he added.

The Republican front-runner, John McCain, remarked that Fidel Castro’s resignation was “nearly half a century overdue.”

“Yet freedom for the Cuban people is not yet at hand, and the Castro brothers clearly intend to maintain their grip on power,” he said.

Fidel Castro, 81, is stepping down as the head of the Cuban government, having held that position since assuming power in a 1959 revolution.

John McCain means that literally.

Raul Castro has been serving as Cuba’s interim president as Fidel battled myriad health problems. Raul Castro is expected to formally assume power when Cuba’s National Assembly meets Sunday.

“Cuba’s transition to democracy is inevitable; it is a matter of when - not if,” said McCain, the Arizona senator and GOP-nominee-to-be, calling on the U.S. to “help hasten the sparking of freedom in Cuba.”

In a statement, Obama’s Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton, said Cuba’s new leaders face a choice between “the failed policies of the past” or “a historic step to bring Cuba into the community of democratic nations.”

“Certainly the people of the United States would meet a new government to talk about what needs to happen if that new government takes some action that demonstrates they’re willing to change,” the New York senator said.

Castro has long been a target of hatred from Cuban exiles concentrated in Florida and has frequently commented on the U.S. election.

In an editorial Wednesday, the 81-year-old took a swipe at John McCain as being “the pawn of that mafia” of conservative Cuban-Americans.

Castro has angrily refuted John McCain’s assertion that communist Cuban agents tortured some of his compatriots in the Vietnam War.

Fidel has also chastised Obama and Clinton for calling for democracy in his country - but also touted them as a winning combination.

SIDE NOTE: Don’t expect either to pull out that endorsement on the stump while campaigning for votes in the Texas primary.

Barack Obama has promised a more open policy towards Cuba, to allow travel to the island and cash remittances from Cuban-Americans.

Hillary Clinton has said she does not favor any major change in Cuba policy until there is democratic change, and attacked Obama for being willing to meet Cuba’s leader and other notorious foes.

Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte said Tuesday he did not expect the decades-old US embargo of Cuba to be lifted “anytime soon.”

The Cuban-American vote was key to President George W. Bush’s slim Florida win in 2000, and could play another influential role in 2008.