Tough questions for Obama

Just to stave off any impression that we’re a bunch a simpering, hope-swilling sycophants ’round these parts, here’s a decent article by Radley Balko, who blogs at The Agitator, listing the top questions he’d like to ask Barack Obama. It’s a tough, probing and (mostly) fair list, which underlines some of the inconsistencies & flaws observable in the current frontrunner for President.

— In a speech to Cuban-Americans in Miami, you called the Cuban trade embargo “an important inducement for change,” a 180-degree shift from your prior position. The trade embargo has been in place for 46 years. Did denying an entire generation of Cubans access to American goods, culture, and ideas induce any actual change? Wasn’t the real effect just to keep Cubans poor and isolated? In communist countries like Vietnam and China, trade with the U.S. has ushered in economic reform, and vastly improved the standard of living. Why wouldn’t it be the same if we were to start trading with Cuba?

More here. His questions for John McCain are here.