Read President Obama's Speech to the Cuban People

++I've listened to our politicians at AIPAC, a video of someone I know saying Joe McCarthy was right, The Donald calling Belgium a "city.
This is all enough to make one go mad.

++As usually the bright spot was President Obama.  Speaking at the National Theater in Havana, President Obama gave a nuanced speech to the Cuban people that said he was in Cuba to end the last remnant of the Cold War in the Americas. 

++This was a difficult speech to write. Nixon in China and Reagan in Moscow didn't present the complex interrelationships of the two peoples. Our relationship with Cuba veered from supporting revolutionary activity in the late 19th century to wanting to annex it,to wanting to invade it.

++President Obama had to talk not only about the Cuban people today but also the exiles, many of whom fled oppression at home. And he had to talk about recent areas of cooperation, including ending civil war in Colombia that began in 1948,two years before I was born. 

++While President Obama spoke about human rights and democracy. I thought he scored big on the whole issue of race and that both the U,.S. and Cuba share racism. The other area he scored on was what small businesses mean--a sense of self identity. 

++There have been nifty elements of the Obama Cuban trip. Jackie Robinson's widow will be at today's baseball game between Tampa and Havana. Derek Jeter, Joe Torre and Luis Tiant will be on hand. 

++Raul Castro was asked questions on human rights at the press conference. The agreement was that he would only answer one question but he had to answer two. And when he said Cuba didn't have political prisoners,the local human rights community immediately produced a list. The Cuban government isn't used to this.

++President Obama has almost exhausted all the ways the economic embargo can be modified without Congress completely lifting it.  But only Congress can vote to lift the embargo. As we know by the composition of Congress that isn't happening anytime soon.

++President Obama was almost wistful in speaking about hope and change to the young people. It was as if he had to admit my trip here is about all you get until the future.

++He remains an island of sanity in a country that has gone amok.