Obama, the CANF, and Latin America

I have to admit, I haven’t paid much attention to the Cuban American National Foundation recently. In my U.S.-Latin American Relations class I discuss it in historical context, for its policy importance under Jorge Mas Canosa (who died over a decade ago).

As a result, I read this story about Barack Obama giving a speech to the CANF with some confusion. Obama reiterated his oft-mentioned idea that the U.S. should engage in diplomacy with the Cuban government. Then what happened?

Obama's speech was warmly received and he was frequently interrupted by applause.

But there’s more. McCain had given a typical “I’ll be your hardliner man” speech a few days ago, which I assumed had been both expected and popular. Not quite:

Obama's speech offered a sharp contrast to the remarks delivered just four days ago by McCain in Miami. McCain's stay-the-course message was warmly received, but foundation president Pepe Hernandez said he was disappointed.

''We love Sen. McCain and we have been friends with him for a very long period of time, but we think at this juncture of history of the Cuban process we need to try new approaches and new methods,'' he said. ``There was nothing in his speech that we have not heard before.''

So even CANF is saying that nearly a half century of failure marks the time to come up with a fresh strategy.

Finally, the Obama campaign simultaneously released a document proposing a new Latin America policy. I do not think it is an exaggeration to call it bold. I’ll have to chew on it a bit.