Smart Diplomacy: Hillary Demands Release of American Contractor, Cuba Sentences Him to 15 Years

Seriously, I'm already nostalgic to the halcyon days of Jimmy Carter. This current foreign policy feels more like a halcion daze. Can we possibly look more inept on the world stage? The other day Hillary Clinton issues a strongly worded demand for the Cubans to release a USAID worker. Their response? A 15-year jail sentence. Lovely.

State-run media say a Cuban court has found U.S. contractor Alan Gross guilty of crimes against the state and sentenced him to 15 years in prison.

The court found that the 61-year-old Gross was working on a "subversive" program, paid for by the United States. The report was read out on the afternoon news. The Maryland native was arrested in December 2009 while working on a USAID backed project that aims to build democracy on the communist-run island.

We have a decrepit regime on its last legs in Havana, Obama has eased sanctions on them and opened more travel there, and this is the thanks we get.

I hope someone informs Obama while he plays the back nine.

Update: I was just joking about that back nine comment. Yet sure enough, Obama's out golfing.

President Obama just could not wait for spring weather to arrive.

For the second week in a row, the most powerful man in the world stepped away from the White House to hit the golf course.

Even as his administration and the U.S. military help Japan recover from a devastating earthquake, and as the world worries about Fukushima's nuclear reactor, the president could not resist taking advantage of the 48-degree weather in the Washington, D.C., area.

Don't strain yourself, champ, I'm sure you've got plenty of hoops to watch tonight.