to By William J. Antholis
 
Last fall, Marco Rubio issued a foreign policy challenge to his rivals, declaring: “You had better be able to lead our country on the first day, not six months from now, not a year from now.”
 
Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders both have said that they would make comprehensive immigration reform a top priority, and introduce it in their first 100 days as president.
 
John Kasich has perhaps the most ambitious first 100-day agenda. If president, he promises not only “completing the border,” but also a freeze on regulation, corporate tax cuts, a freeze on discretionary spending, an increase in defense spending, and reestablishing ties with Congress.
 
If the next president wants his or her time in office to matter, the first day or 100 days are the wrong mileposts to choose.  That won’t stop cable TV pundits from focusing on the 100-day benchmark, first coined by President Franklin Roosevelt in a 1933 fireside chat.

By Madeline Merrill

As of April 11, 2016, presidential candidate John Kasich has yet to win any state nomination besides that of his home state--Ohio.
 
Jonathan Martin of the New York Times writes of Governor Kasich, “He received fewer votes in one state than a candidate who was no longer in the race. He has not added a single [state] delegate since March 15. And outside of his home state….he has been the top vote-getter in just four counties.” Many believe it has long been time since Governor John Kasich should have cut his losses and resigned from the presidential debates.

By Madeline Merrill

For the past eighty-eight years, United States and Cuban relations have been anything but cordial. Since the unsuccessful Bay of Pigs Invasion in 1961, Cuban leadership has warily observed American happenings in the expectation that the United States will attempt another forceful overthrow of the Castro-led communist regime.
 
But on March 20, 2016, President Obama was the first American president in the eighty-plus years since the escalating international tensions prompted by the Cold War to step foot on Cuban soil. Michelle and Barack Obama landed at Havana’s Jose Marti Airport and stayed in Cuba for a total of three days.
 
The visit was pointedly political--Obama visited with Cardinal Jaime Ortega, met Cuban residents, ate in a privately-operated restaurant (as contrasted with previously governmentally-run restaurants). Sources cite that Cubans lined the streets for just a glimpse of the Obama family.