Barack Obama cited JFK in defending his misguided Cuba policy, but JFK imposed the embargo he is trying to sidestep…

Barack Obama Sites President Kennedy In Defending His Cuba Policy Obama: “I support the eventual normalization. And it’s absolutely true that I think our policy has been a failure. … I think it is important for us to have the direct contact, not just in Cuba, but I think this principle applies generally. I recall what John F. Kennedy once said, that we should never negotiate out of fear, but we should never fear to negotiate. And this moment, this opportunity when Fidel Castro has finally stepped down, I think, is one that we should try to take advantage of.” (http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/02/21/debate.transcript/)

Yet JFK Imposed The Current Policy Of Isolating Cuba: “The embargo, which began in 1960 during the Eisenhower administration with a ban on U.S. exports to Cuba except for food and medicine, was extended on Feb. 7, 1962, by President Kennedy to ban all imports from Cuba to the United States, including the Cuban cigars that Kennedy had a special fondness for. The aim was to financially strangle Cuba and force a change in the communist-run government.” (Martin Crutsinger, “Cuban Trade Embargo Expected to Remain”, Associated Press, 2/20/2008)

This entry was posted on Thursday, February 21st, 2008 at 6:28 pm and is filed under 2008, Democrats, Foreign Policy, Obama. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.