by Frank James
Obama fever could be spreading in some rather unpredictable ways.
Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, a Republican conservative from Texas, surprised George Stephanopoulous, the host of ABC News's "This Week" program, me and no doubt many others when she told him Sunday that talking with the enemy might be just the way to go in the case of Cuba.
MR. STEPHANOPOULOS: Let me turn to the issue of Cuba -- excuse me -- because I think this might be an area where you and Senator Biden disagree. He said this may be a moment now, the moment when Raul Castro comes in, to talk with the Cubans, to relax, to increase remittances, increase the contacts between the United States and Cuba. Do you agree?
SEN. HUTCHISON: I have believed for a while that we should be looking at a new strategy for Cuba and that is opening more trade, especially food trade, especially if we can give the people more contact with the outside world, if we can build up an economy that might make the people more able to fight the dictatorship, I think that's something that we should have considered a while back, honestly.
MR. STEPHANOPOULOS: No kidding? Including now talking with Raul Castro?
SEN. HUTCHISON: Well, I think if we had -- if we can change the Sunni chieftains in Iraq, some of which were helping the insurgents against us, maybe talking to someone who seems to be a hardcore enemy doesn't hurt anything and it might help.
MR. STEPHANOPOULOS: That's very interesting. Thanks very much. ..
To be fair, Hutchison didn't say that the president of the United States should talk with Raul Castro, Cuba's new president. But she certainly sounded like she could be open to that. If the Cubans insisted that they would talk only if the heads of state were eventually to meet, her comments suggested she might go for that.
Of course, it was Sen. Barack Obama, the frontrunner for the Democratic presidential nomination, who caught grief from conservatives and his Democratic rival Sen. Hillary Clinton, for suggesting that he would meet as president with the leaders of such enemy states as Cuba, Iran and North Korea.
That a conservative Republican would publicly consider opening such talks with the new Cuban head of state might be an indication that it is futile to resist falling under Obama's sway, that even those on the political right are being affected.
Or it may say more about the ideological freedom that comes to a senator when she decides not to run for re-election, as is the case with Hutchison.
What really makes Hutchison's comments stand out is she has been talked of as someone who Sen. John McCain, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, could choose as his vice presidential choice. Matter of fact, Stephanopoulous asked her about it right after the Cuba discussion.
She said she wasn't interested, the standard response. Still, she would be a choice that could help the Republican ticket generate some of that barrier-breaking excitement the Democrats will have this year.
Of course, if she's open to presidential-level discussions with Raul Castro, it certainly would put her at odds with McCain who said this after the most recent Democratic debate in Austin, Texas:
"Not so long ago 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."
At the very least, when McCain next bashes Obama over the senator from Illinois for his willingness to "meet, talk and hope" with leaders unfriendly to the U.S., Hutchison has provided Obama with a little conservative cover.
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Comments
On a lighter note, Obama Will Fix Your Computer! And more... http://obamawill.com
Gotta vote for him now!
Posted by: Jack Martin | February 25, 2008 8:16 AM
What have we got to lose. Cuba is trapped in a bad situation. They may be willing to change if they are given a small token of respect.
SEN. HUTCHISON: I have believed for a while that we should be looking at a new strategy for Cuba and that is opening more trade, especially food trade, especially if we can give the people more contact with the outside world, if we can build up an economy that might make the people more able to fight the dictatorship, I think that's something that we should have considered a while back, honestly.
Posted by: K-Fed | February 25, 2008 8:25 AM
It is hard to believe we have followed the same flawed strategy all of these years. Through ten Presidents we have pandered to a small group of emigres in Miami and let them dictate our foreign policy. America has never benefited from this policy.
Posted by: c. perry | February 25, 2008 9:03 AM
Big mistake! Obama is really showing his inexperience.
Posted by: Sandra | February 25, 2008 9:15 AM
Wow. Here we go again intruding and leaving the American people behind again. He can't even fix his own problems here let alone go into Cuba. Way to go Obama!!
Posted by: Toot | February 25, 2008 10:58 AM
Ask our farmers in the midwest if they would like to be able to sell their crops to the Cubans.
I think you would get a different answer from them than from those self-serving Cubans in Miami.
Posted by: BobinATL | February 25, 2008 11:28 AM
This article contains so much silly tea-reading speculation, it's not even up to Frank James' usual low standards.
Posted by: Alice Palmer | February 25, 2008 12:18 PM
So Sen. Hutchison agrees with Sen.Obama. Ha! Well so does president Bush. Obama has been correct all along, after all, every candidate on this campaign has been following after him, copying him from his 'change' to 'come have dinner with Barack' to 'Yes we can'
and on and on. And the president recently followed his plan on Pakistan and Afghanistan when they went in and rooted out terrorists recently, after Obama stating at a debate that if there was actionable intelligence he would go in and get the terrorists, and Hillary laughed and called him naive. And she laughed and called him naive when he said he would meet with rouge leaders. It is very clear that everything Hillary has been selling to her supporters has been nothing but a huge sales pitch and nothing more, nothing behind it, all facade. She has nothing behind her, she really knows nothing, she does not have any experience to be president any more than anybody else running, republican or democrat, she can just reach back to what her husband knows, and that she's been running a big FRONT of a campaign and nothing more.
Frankly, she is stopping American progress right now and is hampering the democratic process from going forward and might make the democrats lose this election to McCain if she does not step aside right now so the democrats can begin to challenge McCain in the general.
Posted by: RuthieM | February 25, 2008 2:17 PM
Not surprising that the junior senator from Illinois, whose senior colleague enjoys calling US troops "nazis," would have no problem sitting down with a brutal dictator whose brother sent thousands of innocent people to Siberia-like gulags for the sin of expressing freedom of speech. That's liberal compassion for you. It only extends to terrorists and others who hate America. Oppression is just fine and dandy if a communist is doing the oppressing.
Posted by: Jeff | February 25, 2008 3:04 PM
Big mistake! Obama is really showing his inexperience.
Posted by: Sandra | February 25, 2008 9:15 AM
Sandra I'm amazed you could pull your head out of Hillary's fat a%s long enough to type that drivel. We deal with governments that are much worse thatn Cuba regularly. Pakistan comes to mind as does Russia. China too. Hmmm, are we starting to conect the dots Sandra. Obama 2008!!!
http://www.coha.org/2006/12/13/will-democrats-cut-and-run-from-bushs-deeply-flawed-latin-american-policy/
The issues of immigration, terrorism, drugs, energy questions and incipient rivalries with China over resources and new investments in Cuba, should afford a lively time for U.S.-Latin America relations in the near future, even though it is likely to generate more heat than light. It is not too much to say that the incoming Democratic leadership remains sadly under-equipped to coherently debate a range of serious issues that deserve to be ventilated beyond sound bites and canned quips.
http://havanajournal.com/politics/entry/scrap_the_cold_war_us_cuba_policy_opinion/
If any one current policy epitomizes the hypocrisy that has been U.S. foreign policy in the last couple centuries, it is the continued trade embargo on Cuba. President John F. Kennedy established the embargo in 1960 in an attempt to oust Cuban leader Fidel Castro. Since its inception, the policy has proved to be a failure, yet it still lives on.
This continued policy towards Cuba is flawed in several ways.
First, the policy simply doesn’t achieve its objective. It’s been 45 years since the policy was implemented, and we still haven’t rid Cuba of Fidel, despite the best efforts of exploding cigars and the like. It has done nothing in Cuba but contribute to poverty and anti-American support for Fidel. It has hurt civilians substantially more than Fidel’s power.
Also, it demonstrates a massive hypocritical approach to foreign policy only too characteristic of the U.S. Communist China is one of our biggest trading partners. We’ve even reestablished diplomatic and economic relations with communist Vietnam. So why do we continue to ban trade and travel to Cuba? The reason is because Cuba is communist. Get it now?
Sandra WAKE UP!!!
Posted by: Bush Family Value$ | February 25, 2008 4:36 PM
"Big mistake! Obama is really showing his inexperience.
Posted by: Sandra | February 25, 2008 9:15 AM"
Just might point out that Dick Nixon went to China during a shooting war with their surrogates in Indo-China. He and Cho and Mao talked and talked.
Also, we talked and talked to the Russian Bear.
Why not little, weak Cuba?
Posted by: C.Morris | February 25, 2008 5:29 PM
Of course talking to Cuba is the right policy.
Of what are people afraid? Have you no faith in your public servants?
Oh, that's right. Talking to Cuba is going to legitimize it. Well, I have news for you. While the U.S. sits back and whines about Castro, other European countries and China are making other moves.
Wise up, people. Cuba isn't a threat and hasn't been since 1962.
Of course, if it is your policy to make thousands (perhaps millions) suffer because of a few, then go for it. Bugs will soon be back and you can pull wings off of them for kicks, too.
Posted by: Bud McFarlin | February 25, 2008 5:54 PM
Not surprising that the junior senator from Illinois, whose senior colleague enjoys calling US troops "nazis," would have no problem sitting down with a brutal dictator whose brother sent thousands of innocent people to Siberia-like gulags for the sin of expressing freedom of speech. That's liberal compassion for you. It only extends to terrorists and others who hate America. Oppression is just fine and dandy if a communist is doing the oppressing.
Posted by: Jeff | February 25, 2008 3:04 PM
Republicans sit down with brutal murdering dictators all the time. King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia, Hu Jintao of China, Musharraf of Pakistan.
Where's your outrage at those meetings Jeff?
Posted by: Michael | February 26, 2008 2:14 PM
McCain and Clinton are CLUELESS on the Cuba issue. Obama is human. Enough with US arrogance and ignorance internationally.
It's our Foreign Policy, Stupid.
Posted by: Rachel Bruhnke | February 28, 2008 1:38 AM
I think you mean "too", not "to" in the post's title.
Other than that...great column!
Elise in NH
www.obamastraws.blogspot.com
Posted by: Elise in NH | February 28, 2008 2:38 PM