Obama acts boldly on Cuba, with eye on legacy

What you need to know:

  • At times taking on the optimistic tone of his first presidential campaign — albeit now with more gray hair — he is speaking out forcefully to defend his decisions.
  • He has decided to ignore the criticism of his political enemies, who seem to have been caught off guard and left behind.
  • He defended an unprecedented climate change accord with China saying he could not wait forever to act on global warming.

While campaigning in 2008, Barack Obama said it was time to come up with a new US policy towards Cuba. Now, with two years left in his second term in the White House, he has finally acted.

The president has broken with a half century of seeking to isolate Cuba by announcing plans to restore diplomatic relations with the communist-run island after a year and a half of secret negotiations.

In effect, it is a political bombshell.

As he did recently on global warming or immigration reform, Obama launched an unexpected initiative to fulfil an old promise on which even some of his most fervent supporters had just given up.

Paradoxically, the stinging Democratic loss in November's legislative elections has marked a turning point for Obama.

He has decided to ignore the criticism of his political enemies, who seem to have been caught off guard and left behind.

Keenly aware that time if running out for him to etch out a legacy, Obama is shaking off the reputation he had earned as a leader who wavers and is reluctant to make tough decisions.

OPTIMISTIC

At times taking on the optimistic tone of his first presidential campaign — albeit now with more gray hair — he is speaking out forcefully to defend his decisions.

He defended an unprecedented climate change accord with China saying he could not wait forever to act on global warming.

Then he defended a reform that will benefit millions of immigrants without residency papers in the face of what he called an unfair system and said generations of immigrants have made the United States what it is today.

On Cuba, he explained his bold move by saying he wanted to explore new avenues after a half-century-long trade embargo that has utterly failed to dislodge the communist regime in Havana.

"I do not believe we can keep doing the same thing for over five decades and expect a different result," Obama said Wednesday.

"Neither the American nor the Cuban people are well served by a rigid policy that's rooted in events that took place before most of us were born," he added.

AFP