Barack Obama would meet with Raul Castro

Sen. Barack Obama listens to advisers Samantha Power and Richard J. Danzig at a foreign policy forum in New Hampshire last fall. The two are part of an eclectic team that advises the candidate on his signature foreign policy issue, the war in Iraq, as well as on issues such as Iran to which he has more unorthodox approaches. (By Preston Keres -- The Washington Post)




Obama's desire to ease U.S.-Cuba travel restrictions stands in contrast to the stances of Democratic presidential rival Hillary Rodham Clinton and most of the Republican contenders; The question is whether his position will help him in Florida.


Given Obama's strong liberal rating in the US Senate, his stance on Cuba is worth close examination; Obama has already staked out a position to the left of even Hillary Clinton with respect to Cuba; He has advocated easing travel-related restrictions between the U.S. and Cuba, and has implied he would be open to even more changes along those lines...

Obama has argued that easing such restrictions would make the Cuban people less dependent on their government; The validity of such an approach is very much debatable. Yet, what's more disturbing is the possibility that there might be more to Obama's stance than meets the eye.

A recent Houston TV news story captured a volunteer Obama office in Houston with a Cuban national flag -- a flag with the image of Che Guevara superimposed on it. I'm not suggesting that Barack Obama is an avid supporter of Che Guevara, but I do find it interesting that Guevara supporters would gravitate so enthusiastically to the campaign of Barack Obama. And other Americans should find it interesting as well.