# What would President Obama's/McCain's policy be WRT Cuba?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-president-obamas-mccains-policy-be-wrt-cuba/465895>\
**Category:** Great Debates\
**Created:** [September 30, 2008, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-president-obamas-mccains-policy-be-wrt-cuba/465895 "2008-09-30T18:51:17Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\
**Post date:** [September 30, 2008, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-president-obamas-mccains-policy-be-wrt-cuba/465895/1 "2008-09-30T18:51:17Z")

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I haven’t heard either of them mention Cuba so far this campaign (though I may have missed something). Is it possible that Obama, at least, would make some moves towards dropping the embargo and normalizing relations?

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**Author:** ![A\_shameful\_cracka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ebca7d/32.png) [@A\_shameful\_cracka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/A_shameful_cracka)\
**Post date:** [September 30, 2008, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-president-obamas-mccains-policy-be-wrt-cuba/465895/2 "2008-09-30T18:54:07Z")

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He might agree to talk to them without preconditions, and then we would lose!

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**Author:** ![Jack\_Batty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jack_batty/32/3201_2.png) [@Jack\_Batty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jack_Batty)\
**Post date:** [September 30, 2008, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-president-obamas-mccains-policy-be-wrt-cuba/465895/3 "2008-09-30T19:13:37Z")

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> [@A\_shameful\_cracka](#):
>
> He might agree to talk to them without preconditions, and then we would lose!

And McCain would bomb them, Biden would demand they recuse themself from OPEC, and Palin would first have to figure out where it is before she asked McCain what her position is.

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**Author:** ![kellner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/c2a13f/32.png) [@kellner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kellner)\
**Post date:** [September 30, 2008, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-president-obamas-mccains-policy-be-wrt-cuba/465895/4 "2008-09-30T19:29:44Z")

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It seems that a likely strategy is to do nothing, wait until one or both Castros are dead and see what happens next. Unfortunately that doesn’t make for good sound bites.

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**Author:** ![SpoilerVirgin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/4491bb/32.png) [@SpoilerVirgin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SpoilerVirgin)\
**Post date:** [September 30, 2008, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-president-obamas-mccains-policy-be-wrt-cuba/465895/5 "2008-09-30T19:38:52Z")

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From [www.barackobama.com](http://www.barackobama.com/issues/foreignpolicy/#onlatinamerica)

> [@](#):
>
> Barack Obama and Joe Biden will support democracy that is strong and sustainable in the day to day lives of the people of the Americas. In the case of Cuba, they will empower our best ambassadors of freedom by allowing unlimited Cuban-American family travel and remittances to the island. Using aggressive and principled bilateral diplomacy he will also send an important message: if a post-Fidel government takes significant steps toward democracy, beginning with freeing all political prisoners, the U.S. is prepared to take steps to normalize relations and ease the embargo that has governed relations between our countries for the last five decades.

Obama also specifically said during one of the primary debates that he would meet with Raul Castro [without preconditions](http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0208/8625.html).