Newt's a hoot

Newt Gingrich, the former speaker of the House who now apparently has an eye on chasing the 2012 Republican presidential nomination, has his panties in a twist because, in his opinion, President Obama has been too cordial to enemies of America. Gingrich is blasting Obama for reaching out to Cuba, giving a friendly handshake to Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, bowing to Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah and not reacting quickly enough to North Korea's recent rocket test. Let's take the last item first. American presidents have been dealing gingerly with North Korea for decades, and short of nuking them, there's only so much the United States can do. As for Cuba and Venezuela, I'm struggling to figure out what is wrong with trying to improve relations with those countries in our own hemisphere. Certainly, there's much to dislike about the governments of Cuba and Venezuela, and Chavez is a certifiable nutjob, but shouldn't we try to improve our relations with all countries of the world, even those who would be considered our enemies by many? We have no qualms about dealing with the repressive regimes in place in Moscow and Beijing, but clearly that's different in some people's minds. The Bush approach of either ignoring or, in some cases, demonizing countries that are unfriendly to us bore no fruit. In fact, it probably increased anti-American sentiment around the world. The Cuban embargo should have been lifted years ago. It has been an unmitigated failure. Fidel Castro remained in power for half a century, less than 100 miles from the U.S. mainland, and if anyone has been punished by the embargo, it's the people of Cuba. The embargo has remained in place only because American politicians refuse to quit pandering to Cuban-Americans in Florida. And finally, was Gingrich under a rock (or maybe a mistress) when Bush was practically French kissing King Abdullah, whose country gave us the majority of the Sept. 11 terrorists? I guess Newt just missed that. It's not like him to keep his mouth shut.