In the election returns, hidden in plain view, is license for President-elect Obama to fundamentally rethink U.S. policy toward Cuba and expand on his incremental approach.

Obama won Florida, he carried Miami-Dade County handily, and yet he enters the White House owing no debt of political obligation to the hard-liners in the exile community.

In fact, three Miami-area Congressional candidates who agreed with Obama's minimal reforms on Cuba were all defeated in their campaigns by...