Castro's Exit is a Giant Opportunity

OK, which candidate is prepared to break U.S.-Cuba relations out of the anachronistic Cold War cocoon and initiate a new course?

Barack Obama has sketched out the initial steps of a changed direction already, and Hillary Clinton in response said she saw no reason to change from the Bush administration's course until a triggering event appeared.

When Fidel Castro hinted in December he would step down, I asked the Clinton campaign whether it would change course, and was told if something significant occurred to justify a rethink, then the Clinton team would do a "full policy review." This is significant.

The end of Castro's government marks the passing of the longest-serving head of state in power today. The U.S. embargo has failed to have any positive impact on the Cuban government or people.

Of all of the low-cost opportunities to demonstrate a new and different United States style of engagement with the world, Cuba is at the top of the list. Opening family travel -- all travel -- between Cuba and the United States, and ending the economic embargo would provide the kind of people-to-people diplomacy that President Bush and former Sen. Jesse Helms run scared from.

This is a huge potential pivot point in U.S.-Cuba relations. Will Clinton step up to the plate and can Obama move beyond the somewhat timid proposals he has offered and go to the gold standard in U.S.-Cuba relations -- unrestricted travel and sale of food and medicine -- articulated by Sen. Christopher Dodd (D., Conn.)?

And will John McCain just ignore history's offered-up opportunity or will he continue to paw the dirt and blow steam at the island nation just off our southern border?

This article is an exerpt from Steven Clemon's "Fidel Castro Not Returning to the Presidency" on The Washington Note.