Obama Needs More Than a Handshake With Cuba

Dec. 16 (Bloomberg) -- President Barack Obama’s handshakewith Cuban president Raul Castro at Nelson Mandela’s memorialservice last week has fed both hopes and fears that the half-century freeze between the U.S. and Cuba is about to thaw.

Don’t light up the Cohibas just yet. Obama’s largelymeaningless courtesy was accompanied by a more relevant bit ofmeaningless theater: Republican Senator Ted Cruz’s walkout onCastro’s speech. Obama has done little to fix the U.S.’s failedCuba policy. Yet Congress’s bitter-enders remain determined --and able -- to defend an embargo that hurts U.S. interests andundermines its values.