The Occasional Observer

I don't know if any of you caught the sham Dem debate last night, but Obama (PBUH) was asked right in the beginning if he'd meet Cuba's new leadership face-to-face. The moderators referenced O's earlier statements that America's Cuba policy is "a failure" and that we should sit down face-to-face with our enemies "without preconditions." I don't know why it's so hard for Obama and Dems to understand that open diplomatic channels need not be the same thing as a Presidential summit, but I digress...

While O tried to have it both ways, reiterating that he'd meet Raul Castro "without preconditions" but also stating that there would have to be "preparatory work" (try figuring out the difference there), Hill basically agreed in part, dissented in part, and mostly moved on to the next question.

McCain responded effectively today:

“Not so along go Senator Obama favored complete normalization of relations with Fidel Castro’s Cuba. Last night, he said that as president he’d meet with the imprisoned island’s new leader ‘without preconditions.’ So Raul Castro gets an audience with an American president, and all the prestige such a meeting confers, without having to release political prisoners, allow free media, political parties, and labor unions, or schedule internationally monitored free elections.

“Instead, Senator Obama says he would meet Cuba’s dictator without any such steps in the hope that talk will make things better for Cuba’s oppressed people. Meet, talk, and hope may be a sound approach in a state legislature, but it is dangerously naive in international diplomacy where the oppressed look to America for hope and adversaries wish us ill.”

ht: LJ/Race 4 '08; Econ Grad Stud for PBUH