For McAuliffe, Cuba trip to promote Va. products was a bust - TWP

By Peter Wallsten and Carol D. Leonnig

www.politicsdaily.com

Terry McAuliffe has always fashioned himself a master salesman. He could pitch anything.
Then he went to Cuba.

McAuliffe said he journeyed to the island to sell Virginia wine and apples. Yet the Cubans scoffed at his propositions during the April 2010 visit, unmoved by the full-frontal style of persuasion that has long powered McAuliffe’s success as an investor and political rainmaker.

Cuban officials not only rejected McAuliffe, but in meeting after meeting lectured him about the supposed ill effects of the U.S. trade embargo on the island nation.

In many ways, the three-day adventure was classic McAuliffe, offering a taste of the freewheeling, even impulsive, style the Democratic candidate for Virginia governor could bring to the executive mansion if he is elected next week.

He was, in effect, winging it — relying largely on personal charm and hoping for the best, even as many of those around him say they saw little chance for success.

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