If you were around in the late 90’s, you probably remember the saga of Elián González. When he was six years-old, González’s mother attempted to bring him to the United States on a boat with other refugees. The boat sank, the mother drowned, and González was rescued by the Coast Guard. His father wanted him to return to Cuba. His relatives in Miami refused.
Thus began an infinite stream of weepy cable news segments about this child, and how Americans should care deeply about his fate, for some unknown reason. Eventually, after several months of this nonsense, the Clinton administration ended the standoff. Janet Reno sent in heavily armed agents who seized the child at gunpoint, threw him on an airplane, and transported him out of the country. It was, beyond any doubt, the single best decision that the Clinton administration made in their eight years in office. Whatever you think of the merits of the case, it was an all-time decision simply because it put an end to months of relentlessly annoying television coverage.
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