OBAMA TO HAVANA – AT 12:22 P.M. ET:  The president will be in Cuba tomorrow.  Ah, socialism.  He loves it so.  He makes Bernie Sanders sound like John D. Rockefeller. 

But there's a bit of bother, and it involves Cuban dissidents and how Obama deals with them.  From the Washington Examiner:   

The White House won't yet say which political dissidents President Obama plans to meet with during his upcoming historic visit to Cuba, or whether any of those dissidents include prisoners the Castro regime is holding.

Obama will arrive in Cuba on Sunday, and with less than 48 hours before he leaves, the White House is putting off providing a list of dissidents it invited for a meeting with Obama. Instead, White House press secretary Josh Earnest told reporters Friday he hasn't seen the list, which the administration plans to release at an unspecified time over the next few days.

"I haven't seen the list [of dissidents] that the president will meet with ... so I'm not able to vouch for the status of those people," he said.

Still, Earnest and other administration officials stress that Obama will meet with prominent dissidents of his own choosing, a demand the Castro government has grudgingly allowed.

COMMENT:  Why won't they release the list?  I sense the start of a cover-up, a photo op with some "dissidents," but not the heroic dissidents who've risked life and limb.

This will be fascinating.  Critics of the new opening to Cuba, including me, have noted that the United States has made very few demands on the Castro regime, which needs the opening a lot more than we do.  Will that change with this visit?  Will the lot of the people of Cuba improve?  Don't hold your breath, but do hope.

March 19, 2016