Obama Shows Political Courage On Cuban Question

President Obama started his presidency looking weak. That is because he is by nature a person who believes in compromise and bipartisan governing. He tried very hard to govern in a bipartisan way, and get the Republicans to compromise for the good of this country. And this effort led to (in my opinion) weaker versions of both Wall Street reform and health care reform than should have been achieved.

But the Republicans were not interested in cooperation or compromise. They made it their goal to destroy his presidency, and have since tried to obstruct everything he has tried to do. And now with the Republicans in control of both houses of Congress, any remaining faint hope of bipartisanship has disappeared. It has become apparent that, if the final two years of the Obama presidency is to have any meaning, it is up to the president alone to stand fast against the GOP and make his own mark.

And that looks like exactly what he is planning to do. He started with his executive order exempting about 5 millions undocumented immigrants (who have family in this country) from being deported. It was a bold and politically courageous act, necessary because the Republicans refused to even consider immigration reform -- and he has stood fast in that decision in spite of the GOP howls of outrage.

Now he has taken another bold and politically courageous step. He has put this country on the path to normalizing relations with Cuba -- a move that is long overdue. The United States has not had diplomatic relations with Cuba for over 50 years, and has maintain an embargo against that tiny island nation for an equal length of time. The purpose of the breaking off of diplomatic relations, and the embargo, was to force Cuba into getting rid of Castro and establishing a government the U.S. approved of -- and those moves have been abysmal failures.

Most other nations have long since realized the folly of this, and they have ceased to cooperate with the embargo and normalized relations with Cuba -- leaving the United States to stand alone with this failed policy. The embargo should have been discontinued long ago, and relations with Cuba normalized -- but no president has had the courage to do that (fearing they would be labeled as a communist sympathizer).

But President Obama has acted. He has ordered that talks with Cuba begin over normalizing relations, and it looks like the two nations will have embassies in each others countries soon. And he has relaxed greatly the embargo, allowing more visits to that nation, more money to be sent there, and more business to be done there by American firms. The president has not gone all the way toward normalization (for instance tourism is still not permitted), but he has taken a bold step that will undoubtably lead to full normalization in the future.

This has led to more howls of outrage from the Republicans, but it seems the president is no longer worried about that. He now knows that bipartisanship and compromise are impossible as long as the Republican extremists control Congress, so he seems to have made up his mind to stand up for what's right in spite of Republican whining -- and to use his executive power to do that.

Will this refreshing display of political courage from the president continue? I believe it will, but we won't know for sure until we see if he is willing to use his veto power against the series of very bad bills the GOP Congress is sure to send him. So far, I'm liking this new strong President Obama.