Cozying up to Cuba

It's no secret that Obama wants to be embraced by his socialist and communist brethren. Since Cuba is close to home, and we have so many Cubans living in the US that would like to reconnect, his assumption that that is the place to test the waters.

After all, it stands to reason that this is where he can garner the most support. His stated objectives are to "recast" relations with the island nation, with whom we've kept in embargo status for the past 47 years.

There is good reason for that. When Fidel Castro decided to alienate his nation, remove freedoms, and oppress and starve his people, we took the high ground for moral reasons, not political ones.

Unfortunately, with Obama, ideology trumps human values.


And at the end of the day, this is Obama's fatal flaw, and it is tripping him up now. He came into office with very little experience on the state level and none on the national or global level. (Yes, he was in the senate, but he spent all that time campaigning for president.) In other words, an intellectual with no experience based in reality. Naive.

When he went on his worldwide "apology tour", bowing to Petro-tyrant kings and handing out iPods to the Queen, his assumption was that with enough kowtowing and abdicating his assumed title of Leader of the Free World, the rest of the globe's leaders would make nice with us.

But now he's starting to see that this is not how it works in the real world where political and economic reality is ruthless. His numbers are slipping into the sea, and no number of NYC fly-over pranks and beer summits will distract the American public from the fact that he is ill-prepared to lead the nation, and certainly not lead on a global level.

He is, as we say in Texas, "All hat and no cattle."

Obama May be Tested

During the campaign, many of his supporters compared him to the late President Kennedy. True, they are both superb orators, and we can only hope that is the light in which the reference was made.

And who can forget Jumpin' Joe Biden making the ominous pronouncement (or dramatic prediction) that the messiah would be "tested" early in his administration, and the decisions the president made would not be readily recognized as the correct move.

Both of these observations may be at the point of converging. Who can forget JFK staring down the Soviets, intent on establishing missile bases in Cuba?

Now, the Russians are making nice and playing snuggle-puppy with both Cuba and Venezuela. They've sent up a trial balloon on the possibility of using a military airfield on La Orchila island to park their Russian strategic bombers.

Hugo Chavez is keen on hosting them.

Cuba is also courting the big red bear and is leaving the door open for them to establish a military presence right on America's doorstep.

"This is possible in Cuba," said General Anatoly Zhikharev, chief of the Russian air force's strategic aviation staff, to the Interfax-AVN military news agency.

Could this be Barak's JFK moment? The one Jumpin' Joe prophesied for the messiah? We know the reds wouldn't have dared make this move with Bush in office, or even Clinton. But Barak is an acknowledged socialist and they obviously feel some dogmatic kinship with him.


At this point, the president is still somewhat an unknown quantity, given more to nebulous rhetoric than decisive action.

And the fact of the matter is that Russians have never been that way. For better or worse, they are men of action. Sometimes brutal, it's true; but you can count on bold action, even when it's ill-conceived.

If this test is indeed on the horizon, Obama has two choices: fall in line with his marxist belief system, or unlike Michelle, decide he's proud of his country and grow a pair.

Choose wisely.