Patrick Doherty points to signs that the Obama administration will follow through on its campaign promise to engage more productively with Cuba:
Under President Bush, the analysis of the economic reforms would have been to trivialize them and then change the subject to human rights. This speaker [a State Department official] did not. Instead, the official said that the Cuban people will be putting pressure on the government to effect social and economic reforms, which tracks much closer to reality than what we've heard out of the White House since....well since the Brothers to the Rescue shootdown sank the Clinton administration efforts at dialogue. Taken together, it looks to me that we've got an administration that will stick to its word and engage the Cuba issue seriously.
I don't think there's any question that this is excellent news. Nothing says EPIC FAIL more than the 47-year policy of disengagement and embargo that the United States has pursued toward Cuba -- even strong Castro foes would be well advised to seek an alternative approach. As Doherty notes, Obama doesn't appear to be afraid of the Cuban-American vote in Florida. The community is becoming more politically diverse, and in any case is losing its demographic grip over the state's electoral votes. Cuba has real "legacy" potential for Obama; 10 presidents have failed to dislodge either Castro or his opponents in the United States.
--Robert Farley
