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All-but-announced 2016 Republican presidential contender Scott Walker is quite upset with President Obama's decision to dial down 50 years of tension and begin the normalization of relations with Cuba.

Obama's move, says Walker, is simply "a bad idea."

"No matter who the president is, no matter what party's in charge, consistently, in the past we've said if you want to have a more normal relationship with the United States, you need to show you're committed to the same freedoms and rights that we have here in the United States," gripes Walker, who refuses to accept that widely reported changes in the Cuban government's approach to a host of economic and political matters are sufficient to justify improved relations.

Walker's sudden interest in setting high standards with regard to freedoms and rights is intriguing, if not exactly consistent.

As the governor of Wisconsin, Walker has been an especially enthusiastic booster of the People's Republic of China — visiting the world's largest communist country, posing for pictures with Chinese leaders, hailing the economy they control and declaring last year, "We’re still very big on doing business in Shanghai in particular, but throughout the country."