Obama Libre!

The Cold War has been over for awhile.  Someone should tell Marco Rubio.  And Bob Menendez .  And Ted Cruz.  And McConnell, Boehner, Pat Tiberi, and the rest of the curmudgeons living in the past and calling for Fidel Castro's head on a stick.

When Castro took control almost 60 years ago, many well-to-do Cubans got a really raw deal.  They lost most of their assets and fled to Florida.  Today, those remaining old emigres are still righteously pissed off at Fidel, and understandably so.  But time marches on and things change.

There's no more Red Menace.  There are no missiles in Cuba.  The Berlin Wall fell in 1989, and the USSR collapsed in 1991.  There are only five Communist nations left in the world today -- China, Viet Nam, Laos, North Korea, and Cuba.  We've normalized relations with the first three.  (My nephew just returned from a trip to Laos.)  Now Obama has added Cuba to the list.  It doesn't mean we're suddenly bosom buddies, but at least we'll be civil and do a little business together.

"Barack, you will get me
some good cigars, si?"

The little island nation is no longer a threat.  Even Pope Francis says it's time for the U.S. and Cuba to move forward and treat each other reasonably and respectfully.  And share a cigar!  It's a start.

Now, as for North Korea, that make take awhile longer.