CUBA SI, OBAMA NO – AT 8:24 A.M. ET:  One of the major stories of 2009 has been the stunning collapse of President Obama's "outreach" policy.  Obama reaches out, no one reaches back.  Now add Cuba to the list of nations – or regimes – where love has not made a difference.  Again, from The New York Times: 

When President Obama came to office, the unflattering billboards of George W. Bush, including one outside the United States Interests Section of him scowling alongside Hitler, came down and the anti-American vitriol softened...

...But the tenor here has changed considerably, and Mr. Obama, whose election was broadly celebrated by Cuba’s racially diverse population, is now being portrayed by this nation’s leaders as an imperialistic, warmongering Cuba hater.

And that is major heartbreak for Obama's base, the left wing of the Democratic Party, which always had a soft spot in its collective, or collectivist, heart for Fidel and his guys.

In one of his recent written commentaries in the state press, Fidel Castro, who has not appeared in public in nearly three years, wrote that Mr. Obama’s “friendly smile and African-American face” masked his sinister intentions to control Latin America.

Well, the good news is that there's someone who believes Barack Obama may be capable of controlling something.

Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla also recently accused Mr. Obama of behaving like an “imperial chief” at the climate change talks in Copenhagen, displaying “arrogant” behavior aimed at quashing developing countries.

I assume the president is shown these comments, and possibly realizes how foolish some of his "outreach" has been.  The bottom line is that dictatorships are not interested in any foreign leader who challenges them in any way.  They will grasp the outstretched hand only when nothing has to be given back.

December 31, 2009