Score: 8.0
This is a step in the right direction as far as I'm concerned. Nixon likely got heat for doing the same with China (remember they weren't considered a "real" nation at the time), and that move of detente helped to end the cold war far earlier than it might have ended had Nixon left the communist nations to stand on their own. The fact is there's nothing to be gained out of outright ignoring or ceasing to talk to any group in power. Secluding yourself from other nations is what will lead to a clash of civilizations, and really hasn't helped in the Middle East especially. Half of those listed are simply cold-war remnants or heavily socialist anyways, and haven't taken any true foreign policy stance against the United States as a political or military entity (Iran and North Korea are exceptions), but really, capitalism won, I think it's time the U.S. gave Cuba and the South American nations they've been exploiting for the last hundred years a bit more slack and open up trade, even if they have to start doing it on socialist terms.
Really though, to quote a wise teacher I once had: talking can't possibly hurt. I'm not saying chum up to them all and hope they won't utilize you for their own domestic policies, but opening up an embassy in Venezuela is not going to do any injury; the worst that happens is some delegate gets yelled at as a bourgeois pig for two weeks straight. When that delegate is still there and still hoping to talk, perhaps something meaningful could come of it. It's just a thought really, this could obviously be a thorny issue should it happen, but to me, it means so little and could possibly allow for so much, it only makes sense.
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