Never too late to get rid of a bad policy. It sounds good to me:
"The United States intends to open an official embassy in Cuba in the coming months, the White House announced Wednesday, part of a broader normalizing of diplomatic relations after the countries exchanged prisoners."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2014/12/17/who-will-object-to-the-biggest-change-in-u-s-cuba-relations-in-decades/
This is all about locking up Cuban votes for the Republican party. Still has a space opened up here?
"But in recent years political space has opened up for politicians from both parties to admit that the embargo is accomplishing nothing. The reason is the simple passage of time. That first generation of Cuban immigrants who are so fiercely anti-Castro and anti-communist — and as a consequence, fiercely loyal to the Republican party — has been growing old and dying. Their children and grandchildren don’t share their partisan loyalties or their singular focus on maintaining the embargo. All the talk of “keeping the pressure” on the Castro brothers sounds a little ridiculous to many of them — if 54 years of pressure hasn’t worked, why would the 55th or 56th year finally do the trick?"
The GOP advantage with Cuban-Americans is also vanishing.
"When Barack Obama ran for president in 2008, his position was that the embargo should be gradually eased, and early in his term he did loosen restrictions on travel and the transfer of money from Cuban-Americans to relatives on the island. In 2012, Obama narrowly lost Cubans in Florida — doing better than any Democrat had in decades — and a Cuban-American is now as likely to be a Democrat as a Republican (Mitt Romney supported maintaining the embargo, just as Hillary Clinton and John McCain did in 2008)."
This move can at least begin to open up the Cuban regime as well, getting it as part of the Western orbit which is always a good thing. Whatever the embargo was ever meant to achieve it obviously has well worn out its usefulness.
"This is a change that everyone has seen coming, and most Americans havefavored for some time. So it’ll be interesting to see how loudly Republicans in Congress object on an issue that would put them at odds with public opinion and make them look hidebound and out of touch."
"The United States intends to open an official embassy in Cuba in the coming months, the White House announced Wednesday, part of a broader normalizing of diplomatic relations after the countries exchanged prisoners."
"The White House said that Obama would order Secretary of State John Kerry to begin discussions with Cuban officials on re-establishing diplomatic relations and high-level discussions and visits between the countries are expected to follow. The opening of the embassy will happen "as soon as possible," an official said, noting that "the decision has been made" to normalize relations. The main issues to be resolved are logistical, the official said."
"Other expected changes include increased travel permission for Americans to visit Cuba, an official review of Cuba's current designation as a state sponsor of terrorism and increased coordination between the United States and Cuba on issues like disaster response and drug trafficking."
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/dc/obama-united-states-cuba-embassy
Of course, even here, the GOP Congress is the fly in the ointment.
"As for the Cuban embargo, officials said that the White House supports efforts to end it, but knows congressional approval for lifting it is unlikely in the immediate future."
It's funny. As Jon Stewart says, Dick Cheney's brain might just be the scariest place in the universe. Dick Cheney-aka the Hurt Liker.
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/jon-stewart-dick-cheneys-mind-scariest-place-in-the-universe
In the 80s he used to run simulations of a Soviet nuclear attack-where he and his buddies would hide underground in Washington, DC an simulate trying to pick back up the pieces after this nuclear attack. One of the things Cheney determined in this simulation is that the new post-nuclear attack US government wouldn't have a Congress-classic case of a feature not a bug for Cheney no doubt. Another feature not a bug of 9/11-there were many for Cheney, the Hurt Liker-is that he got to return to those old drills this time it would simulate a biological attack by Islamist terrorists rather than a nuclear attack via the Soviets.
Ironically, if there were no Congress today think about how much more we could get done. Of course, there's the rub-if Cheney and Bush had no Congress in their Administration it's quite sobering where that might have taken us. So I know that''s why we have to have a Congress and a Presidency even if right now all the good ideas come from the White House.
Paul Waldman today asks who will object to the biggest change in decades in US-Cuban relations. There are a few of course as he notes:
Yes, the embargo "still has its advocates, few more vocal than Democratic Senator Robert Menendez, the son of Cuban immigrants who chairs the Senate Foreign Relations Committee (today Menendez released an angry statement condemning the deal to release Gross as a gift to the Cuban regime). Republican Senator Marco Rubio also lashed out at the news, calling it “part of a long record of coddling dictators and tyrants that this administration has established.”
This is all about locking up Cuban votes for the Republican party. Still has a space opened up here?
"But in recent years political space has opened up for politicians from both parties to admit that the embargo is accomplishing nothing. The reason is the simple passage of time. That first generation of Cuban immigrants who are so fiercely anti-Castro and anti-communist — and as a consequence, fiercely loyal to the Republican party — has been growing old and dying. Their children and grandchildren don’t share their partisan loyalties or their singular focus on maintaining the embargo. All the talk of “keeping the pressure” on the Castro brothers sounds a little ridiculous to many of them — if 54 years of pressure hasn’t worked, why would the 55th or 56th year finally do the trick?"
The GOP advantage with Cuban-Americans is also vanishing.
"When Barack Obama ran for president in 2008, his position was that the embargo should be gradually eased, and early in his term he did loosen restrictions on travel and the transfer of money from Cuban-Americans to relatives on the island. In 2012, Obama narrowly lost Cubans in Florida — doing better than any Democrat had in decades — and a Cuban-American is now as likely to be a Democrat as a Republican (Mitt Romney supported maintaining the embargo, just as Hillary Clinton and John McCain did in 2008)."
This move can at least begin to open up the Cuban regime as well, getting it as part of the Western orbit which is always a good thing. Whatever the embargo was ever meant to achieve it obviously has well worn out its usefulness.
"This is a change that everyone has seen coming, and most Americans havefavored for some time. So it’ll be interesting to see how loudly Republicans in Congress object on an issue that would put them at odds with public opinion and make them look hidebound and out of touch."
"Either way, it turns out that President Obama can get some things accomplished even with a hostile Congress."
This has really been what's gotten to the GOP since it's big Congressional wins. Far from humbling the President, he's been a President Unleashed. He manages to keep upstaging them and being the one who makes the news not them.
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