[technofire]

> This is an executive action.

Not quite; some restrictions have been lifted but this is not yet a done deal:

"Although the decades-old American embargo on Cuba will remain in place for now, the administration signaled that it would welcome a move by Congress to ease or lift it should lawmakers choose to."[1]

[1] http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/18/world/americas/us-cuba-rel...

[kmfrk]

Obama calling for Congress to act is what we in this year of our Lord 2014 call "trolling".

[themartorana]

Have to agree. What does Obama have to lose by just going out on a limb and ending a horribly failed policy?

Realizing of course there are so many others he promised to end and hasn't...

[Amezarak]

> Have to agree. What does Obama have to lose by just going out on a limb and ending a horribly failed policy?

Because "like so many others" he simply doesn't have the power to; it requires Congressional approval. I suppose he could do what you want and unilaterally declare it over, but that would be a very clear breach of power and would result in many moderates and liberals decrying his overreach. It would end up - at the least - the subject of legal action and an injunction and perhaps even spur bipartisan support for impeachment proceedings.

The power of the Presidency is in general greatly exaggerated by the media. The President has broad power to set the agenda (which the rest of the government and the country is largely free to ignore) and has some power over policy/legal execution (particularly within foreign affairs), and over the military, but that's about it. Even within the executive branch the President is not as all-powerful as the media or even high schools tend to imply: even excluding agencies that are altogether independent, the President generally cannot walk in and tell people what to do.

[themartorana]

I know this. But I seriously doubt impeachment.

More interesting would be to see who supports a continued embargo and why? Instead of rubber-stamping it, congressmen would have to take a position one way or the other, and I doubt there's much good argument for its continuation en-masse.

Obama could force Congress to have to address Cuba head-on. I don't know if it's the most important thing or not, but you'd at least get to see why we continue a useless embargo.