101 Reasons Not to Vote for John W. McBush -- #99

[NellyLunatic1980]

#99: Cuba

http://www.miamiherald.com/news/america ... 41014.html

This one happened just yesterday, so I'm still trying to wrap my mind around this:

"Senator Obama has shifted positions and says he only favors easing the embargo [against Cuba], not lifting. He also wants to sit down unconditionally for a presidential meeting with Raúl Castro. These steps would send the worst possible signal to Cuba's dictators--there is no need to undertake fundamental reforms, they can simply wait for a unilateral change in U.S. policy."
--John McCain, yesterday

"I believe we should give hope to the Cuban people, not to the Castro regime."
--John McCain, same speech yesterday

First of all, Obama has indicated that he favors normalized relations with Cuba only if the Castro regime takes meaningful steps toward democracy--a position that McCain himself held when he ran for president in 2000 when Fidel was still running the joint--but that's beside the point. My point is that McCain says that he wants to "give hope to the Cuban people" by not changing our current relationship with the country until there's "a unilateral change in U.S. policy"... uh, WHAT?! Who does John McCain think he's fooling?

Bush's own commerce department has stated publicly that there should a normalized relationship with Cuba. So why not talk to Cuba, and maybe give them a little push toward democracy? (By "push toward democracy", I don't mean Bush's or McCain's definition, which is "bomb the hell out of them".) And don't say "it's because they're a dangerous communist regime" cuz our country doesn't seem to have any problems dealing with another dangerous communist regime--China. Or our former communist adversaries Vietnam.

[Nudity® about south Florida removed]

Apparently, some Republicans want to deal with only the communist countries that they like.

[hf_jai]

I think you need to either read what McCain said again, or maybe re-look what you wrote.

McCain didn't say that "he wants to 'give hope to the Cuban people' by not changing our current relationship with the country until there's 'a unilateral change in U.S. policy'." He said he does not believe we should change US policy without FIRST seeing some reform in Cuba, or else they will have no incentive to change.

Of course, that's been our policy for the last 40+ years and it hasn't done much good, even in the last 15 since the Soviet Union fell and Cuba lost so much economic support.

Policy vis a vis Cuba is all about Florida politics anyway, not what's best for Cuba or this country either. No candidate can afford to piss off the Cuban-American population leading up to a presidential election and risk forfeiting Florida's electoral votes. McCain, of course, must also play to the conservative "tough guy" base.

What Obama doesn't get is that agreeing to meet with foreign leaders personally and without pre-condition may sound good to a certain segment of the Democratic party, but it throws away one of the best diplomatic "carrots" a president has at his/her disposal.