Via my brother Matt, Obama on Cuba. The candidate told the audience of Cuban-Americans that his Latin America and Cuba policy would be summed up "the simple principle that what's good for the people of the Americas is good for the United States." Matt doesn't like the line, and nor do I. It means nothing in terms of policy, and gives no clue as to his priorities in the region. That wouldn't be a huge problem if the rest of the speech was more substantive, but it really wasn't. He mentions having a special envoy for the Americas and creating an Alliance for the Americas, but it would be nice to hear a little more detail. The speech was a laundry list of general problems in the region, not a plan for alleviating them.
Obama could have done more with this speech, his first major address on Latin America. The depth he has demonstrated in talking about other regions was mostly absent here. Obama has come across as being not particularly well-versed on Latin America, and the speech didn't do a whole lot to reverse that notion.
Update: While he was in Miami, Andrés Oppenheimer interviewed Obama, and came away more impressed than he did ten months ago.
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