http://www.thewashingtonnote.com/archives/002870.php
Fidel Castro Not Returning to the Presidency
by Steve Clemons

OK -- Which of the candidates is prepared to finally break US-Cuba relations out of the anachronistic Cold War cocoon they have been in and initiate a new course?

Barack Obama has sketched out the initial steps of a changed direction already, and Hillary Clinton in response said that she saw no reason to change from the Bush administration's course until a triggering event appeared.

When Castro hinted in December that he would be stepping down, I asked the Clinton campaign if it would change course and was told that if something significant occurred to justify a rethink, then a "full policy review" would be done by the Clinton team. OK -- this is significant.

Now one has. The ending punctuation point of Fidel Castro's government marks the passing of the longest serving head of state in power today. The US embargo -- which practically the entire world votes against each year -- has utterly failed to have any positive impact on the Cuban government or people.

Of all the low cost opportunities to demonstrate a new and different United States style of engagement with the world, Cuba is at the top of the list. Opening family travel -- and frankly all travel -- between Cuba and the US, and ending the economic embargo will provide new encounters, new impressions, and the kind of people-to-people diplomacy that George W. Bush, John Bolton, Richard Cheney, and Jesse Helms run scared from.

This is a huge potential pivot point in US-Cuba relations. Will Hillary Clinton step up to the plate -- and will Obama move beyond the somewhat timid proposals he offered previously and go to the gold standard in US-Cuba relations articulated by Senator Chris Dodd?

And will John McCain just ignore history's offered up opportunity or will he continue to paw the dirt and blow steam at the island nation just off our southern border?

What many don't know is that recently Fidel Castro -- who is know quite dismissive of and sparring with John McCain over McCain's accusations that Cuban agents engaged in torture in Vietnam -- said that the "unbeatable ticket" would have both Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama on it.

-- Steve Clemons publishes the popular political blog, The Washington Note
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Steven Clemons
Director, American Strategy Program, New America Foundation
and Publisher, www.TheWashingtonNote.com
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