Reps. Lee and Rush discuss U.S. policy towards Cuba in Havana (photo: Reuters)

Politics is theater, so they say. This weekend's visit of a delegation of Congressional Black Caucus members to Cuba to meet with high-level Cuban officials, demonstrates this truism with gusto.

At both a formal press conference in Havana and at an impromptu presser at the statue honoring Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., the CBC delegation has been out in front setting down markers that demonstrate, if nothing else, that the mood in Washington towards changing our policy in Cuba has changed dramatically.

The prescription, however, for full normalization and then talks makes little sense, to me, however. That's because I value a different set of interests than those of the CBC delegation seems to be prioritizing.

My sense is that most compelling national interest the United States has vis-a-vis Cuba is ending the black eye and hemispheric road block that the embargo represents. We need to improve our relations with Latin America and our image in the world and the Obama administration's maintenance of the embargo is sending the opposite message. Then there are trade interests, then humanitarian interests, then democracy and human rights. I sequence issues that way because after fifty years of embargo and covert games, the democracy and human rights situation has yet to improve and I want us to try engagement as a strategy.

But not full normalization. The United States needs to take steps to unwind the embargo while establishing useful dialogues on issues of mutual concern. That process of normalization without the embargo may legitimately take a long time, but it is against our interests to let Cuba dictate when we end get rid of the global black eye and regional road block.

My two cents.