Via the LAT: Huckabee does a flip-flop on Cuba

As governor of Arkansas five years ago, Mike Huckabee joined a bipartisan chorus of politicians who concluded that the U.S. trade embargo against Cuba was bad for businesses. Now that he’s a top-tier candidate for president, Huckabee has decided he favors the embargo — so much so that he vowed Monday to outdo even President Bush in strangling the regime of Cuban President Fidel Castro and punishing those who do business there.

Why might he make such a shift? Well, I’m glad you asked:

It was a change of heart sure to please hard-liners among the Cuban exiles who could make up 10% or more of the electorate in Florida’s crucial Jan. 29 Republican primary.

Not to mention the fact that if he were to secure the nomination he would need every percentage point he could squeeze out of Florida. This is, has remarked before, a great example of how the electoral college helps skew national policy by forcing candidates to pander to a tiny slice of the electorate because they are a key voting block in a crucial state–voter who might otherwise not be crucial to winning the presidency in terms of the overall popular vote can become central in determining the outcome of a given presidential election.

And never mind the fact that the embargo on Cuba has not provide the desired policy outcome, i.e., it has not resulted in regime change in Cuba (indeed, I would argue by giving Castro an outside enemy to blame and by hampering economic liberalization, the embargo has been Castro’s greatest aid in maintaining his regime). Further, the embargo denies US citizens economic opportunities to trade with Cuba, the reason that Huckabee favored softening the embargo with Cuba when he was governor of Arkansas and wanted his state to be able to trade with that country.

In terms of short-term political gain, Huckabee did win the endorsement of Florida’s Speaker of the House, Marco Rubio, who happens to be Cuban-American.

Huckabee has also shifted (if not flip-flopped) on immigration policy as well. Nothing like being a front-runner to lead to policy “clarifications” I guess.

1 Comment

1. I agree that the trade embargo is silly. However, would the Huckster really lose the Florida Cuban vote to a Democrat?

   I am sure the positions of Obama & Clinton are as stupid on Cuba as the Republican field. Especially if Hillary is the nominee, Huckster could just run adds linking her to the Elian Gonzales case and he would do just fine.

   Comment by Ratoe — Tuesday, December 11, 2024 @ 10:50 am

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