U.S. and Cuba Exchange Warm Diplomatic Overtures-Does This Hurt Obama's Chances in Florida in 2012?

[Median Democrat]

Obama promised to engage Cuba diplomatically during the campaign, and apparently he is doing this, as Cuba appears to be on the verge of being re-admitted to the Organization of American States. The question, of course, is whether President has properly taken into account the political hit he would take in Florida among Cuban Americans.

Is President Obama making the politically astute move? Will this allow Republicans to paint President Obama as soft on communists?

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/30261514/

/snip

.S., Cuba trade warm words ahead of summit
Organization of American States to vote on readmitting communist nation

PORT-OF-SPAIN, Trinidad - The head of the Organization of American States said Friday that he will ask its members to readmit Cuba 47 years after they ousted the communist nation. And in another step toward improving relations, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called Cuban President Raul Castro's latest comments a "very welcome gesture."

After a series of overtures by President Barack Obama, Castro said Thursday that he is ready to talk with the U.S. and put "everything" on the table, even questions of human rights and political prisoners.

That prompted a warm response from Clinton: "We welcome his comments, the overture they represent, and we are taking a very serious look at how we intend to respond."

/snip

[Kurt_and_Hunter]

1. Probably not too much. Younger (American-born) Cuban-Americans are less crazy

[Bicoastal]

2. "Soft on Communists?"

What is this, 1968? Commies pose ZERO threat to us.

[Median Democrat]

4. Agree - But Remember This Exchange In March 2008 Between McCain and Obama?

Expect the Republicans to recycle this argument again, since they are recycling everything else.

Hey! Who said that the Republicans weren't into re-use and recycling? Its a version of Green Politics!


http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2008/05/20/1045253.aspx

/snip

McCain painted Obama's stance towards the Cuban regime as a soft undermining of real progress in repairing the relationship of the two countries. "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 US policy," he said. "That's what they think."

The Arizona senator's remarks were enthusiastically received by the group of mainly Cuban-Americans who attended the speech; they gleefully booed the notion of face-to-face unconditional meetings between Cuba's leader and an American president, and they rewarded McCain's call for free elections with a standing ovation.

But Democrats charge that McCain's bright line against negotiations with Cuba has hardened since he ran against George Bush here in the 2000 primary. Then, as now, McCain laid out conditions under which he would consider meeting with Cuba's leaders, but his tone -- these critics say -- was one with less stringent requirements for some of those concessions, particularly his call that free elections in Cuba be a prerequisite to normalized relations between the two countries.

/snip

[Thrill]

3. Soft on Communists? These same bullshit arguments from the RW don't work

[Median Democrat]

5. But George Bush Was Tough On Communists! Look At Dubya's Stance On China!

Oh wait...

;)

[glowing]

6. I was speaking to a Cuban about this issue... He said it is good to begin

opening up relations with trade, etc., but really open travel etc should wait until 10yrs time. He's a younger gen. Cuban. I really don't know enough of our history or lived through the fear of that time to really understand the issues around it. For the younger 40 below crowd its just something we grew up with. One of those things we were taught as a norm. Something not to question--that we end up questioning. Lot's in this world that we were taught is so obviously lies, who knows how this world will turn out.

[DrToast]

7. I wouldn't worry about it...

He may lose with some Cubans, but I think the rest of the population approves.

Is President Obama making the politically astute move? Will this allow Republicans to paint President Obama as soft on communists?

What is this, 1980?

[Political Tiger]

8. No, I don't think so.

The new generation of Cuban-Americans don't hate Casrto as much as the older generation of Cuban-Americans do, and as a person who grew up in a city with a large Cuban-American population, I can tell you it was always about Castro, not Cuba.

The younger generation realizes that putting our head in the sand and pretending Cuba doesn't exist hasn't hurt Castro in the least bit, and many older generation Cuban-Americans have come to realize this as well. Times have changed and Cuba is no longer a threat to us, and the only ones who have suffered from our embargo of Cuba are the Cuban people, not the Cuban government.

[phleshdef]

9. Soft on communism? All Obama has to say to that is one word... China.

[vaberella]

10. Nope...for one reason. He went and gave Cuban Americans a chance

to travel to Cuba without ANY restrictions so they could see family. I think many Cuban Americans who have problems with Castro...still have family they would love to see and be with and may not have been able to see for decades. Now he's giving them that chance. He won't lose.