On election day, 8.5 million people voted in Florida.  Obama eventually won by 70,000 votes.   

What if Obama had disclosed his plans to talk to Cuba without demanding an inch from the Castro regime?  He would have lost Florida.

Let's remember what candidate Obama said not long ago:

During the 2008 campaign, Obama sometimes talked about his criteria for normalizing relations with Cuba and lifting the embargo in the same breath, making it appear that his criteria overlapped.

During the Democratic presidential primary in 2007, Obama wrote an op-ed for the Miami Herald in which he called for "unrestricted rights'' for Cuban-American travel and remittances to the island.

"Accordingly, I will use aggressive and principled diplomacy to send an important message: If a post-Fidel (Castro) government begins opening Cuba to democratic change, the United States (the president working with Congress) is prepared to take steps to normalize relations and ease the embargo that has governed relations between our countries for the last five decades," Obama wrote.

So I guess that Obama "evolved" on Cuba, as he apparently did with same-sex marriage.

In fact, most Cuban-Americans were not against talks.  I understood that the U.S. had to be in contact with the island's future relationship.

We supported talks, not a monologue – especially a monologue from Raúl Castro.

John Bolton is right:

Obama may even travel to Cuba before he leaves office. Undoubtedly, Fidel and Raul Castro will turn out cheering crowds to greet him as a hero. Why not? Obama will feel right at home in their company.

In return for enormous U.S. concessions to Cuba’s authoritarians, the Obama administration has received essentially nothing. Havana’s promises to lessen its repressive domestic policies have already been violated, and there is little chance that a more “open” American policy will aid the Cuban people more than the caudillos running the country.

We have nothing to show for all of the talking and negotiations.  

Before December, the cruise ships floated by on their way to Jamaica and Cancún.  Soon, the ships will stop in Cuba, and thousands of dollars will flow into the regime's pockets.  And the dissidents will continue to be arrested.   

P.S. You can listen to my show (Canto Talk) and follow me on Twitter.