From NBC’s Mark Murray
On Social Security’s 73rd birthday, the AFL-CIO has announced it’s sending a mailing — at first to 50,000 targeted swing-vote seniors living in Michigan, Ohio, and Pennsylvania — that hits McCain on his wealth and his past support for partially privatizing Social Security. The flier also mentions that McCain, who is 71, has already been receiving Social Security benefits.

[Read More]

Under fire for being a technophobe, John McCain will unveil a technology agenda that bundles previously announced pro-business proposals with continued support for a hands-off approach to regulation.

The plan, dubbed “John McCain and American Innovation,” is set to be released Thursday on the Republican presidential candidate’s campaign Web site. It will call for a 10% tax credit on wages paid to all research-and-development employees. At the same time, it will reiterate Sen. McCain’s opposition to Internet taxes and new laws guaranteeing net neutrality, the idea that Internet providers must treat all legal Internet traffic equally.

[Read More]

From Chuck Todd, Mark Murray, and Domenico Montanaro
*** More Clinton-Obama drama: It now has been exactly two months to the day when Hillary Clinton officially ended her candidacy and endorsed Obama. But even two months — and it seems longer ago than that, doesn’t it? — can’t erase the Clinton drama, even as polls show that women and Clinton’s supporters are firmly behind the Illinois Democrat. First came the Bill Clinton interview in which he wouldn’t say that Obama is qualified to be president beyond the requirements set in the Constitution that you have to be 35 or older and born in the US. And now — right before she stumps for Obama tomorrow in Nevada — comes a YouTube clip of Hillary telling her supporters that she wants a “strategy” to have her delegates heard at the convention. (After talking to a Dem operative, Clinton must approve, in writing, for her name to appear on the ballot.)

VIDEO: Sen. Hillary Clinton wants her delegates to be acknowledged at the Democratic National Convention, saying it will help unify the party. NBC’s Andrea Mitchell reports.

So this is in Clinton’s power whether her name is put into nomination, not Obama’s nor Howard Dean’s.) Watching the video clip, you can tell that Hillary still hasn’t gotten over losing, and given all of the people she had telling her that she’d be the next president, we can understand the denial; she had been preparing for this moment for nearly four years. But we’ve asked this question a million times and we ask it again: Would the Clintons have been as deferential (or be expected to be as deferential) to Obama if the roles were reversed? What has happened over the last few days has given Obama the high ground here.

*** Obama not tough enough? If it’s August, that means that Democratic politicos are wringing their hands about their presidential candidate’s campaign strategy, even though this guy — unlike the guy four years ago — is actually winning in the mid-single digits. Today, the Washington Post runs a piece that features plenty of blind quotes from Democratic strategists worried that Obama isn’t tough enough against McCain’s attacks. “[Y]ou have to counterattack,” said one. “You don’t want to look like a whiner. You want to look tough.” Has Obama had a negative TV ad that’s broken through the clutter in either the primary or the general so far? Arguably, the best negative ad against Clinton was that Mac-IBM spoof created by a rogue supporter. Actually, Obama’s ads — even the positive ones — haven’t been anything that have changed the political debate. That said, we found these two quotes in the piece to be interesting. “We’ve been through two very tough elections at the national level, and it’s very easy to lose confidence,” said Tad Devine. And said a Dem consultant: “One of the great strengths of the Obama campaign has been to not listen to the D.C. chattering class. They have a plan and they stick to it. But clearly, the D.C. chattering class are all wringing their hands.”

*** Time to get away? If you believe these Pew numbers about voters hearing “too much” about Obama, then Obama’s vacation, which begins tomorrow, couldn’t be coming at a better time. According to a new Pew poll, 48% of voters — and 51% of independents — say they’ve been hearing too much about Obama. Is that perhaps the true success of the recent spate of negative McCain ads? What does this poll number mean? Does it mean Obama can’t introduce any more information to voters because they have all they need? Does this mean he simply needs to start making the public focus more on Bush or McCain? Is this simply a response to the over-the-top media blitz Obama orchestrated during his international trip? All we know is that we want to see this question asked again and see if there’s a trend.

Video: NBC Political Director Chuck Todd discusses the talk of tension between Barack Obama and the Clinton’s, the latest veepstakes rumors and a new poll on Barack Obama overexposure.

*** A bundle of fun? The New York Times is the latest news organization to cover the fascinating story of McCain bundler Harry Sargeant. Our favorite anecdote in the piece: A guy who, along with his wife, gave McCain $9,200 — but who at first denied giving the donation and then said, “I’m still not going to vote for [McCain].” A GOP source reminds us about the recent story that Obama had to return $33,000 in contributions from two brothers in Gaza. The difference here is that the McCain camp hasn’t yet returned the money Sargeant has bundled. Who wants to bet that by 6:00 pm ET on Friday that the campaign returns all of the money this guy bundled? Given the amounts of money both campaigns have to raise, there is bound to be a rogue element or two who infiltrates the campaign. It appears this Sargeant is just that, as there doesn’t seem to be any evidence of a quid pro quo, which is what would make this story become bigger.

*** Mending fences? It’s not on his schedule today, but local reporting suggests McCain has an additional stop in Wilmington, OH — closed to the press — “to meet with a small group of residents to gain a greater understanding of the difficult situation facing thousands of Wilmington-based workers at the DHL Air Park.” Earlier in the week, the Cleveland Plain-Dealer reported on the role by McCain and campaign manager Rick Davis in helping a foreign company to acquire the Wilmington facility. By the way, this was one of the more impressive Dem oppo hits in quite some time. There’s some research staff that’s awfully proud of itself this morning, as they’ve made McCain have to play defense on the economy in a major swing state.

*** Not your average primary: Today, it’s primary day in Tennessee, where incumbent Rep. Steve Cohen (D) — a white Jew who represents a majority-black district in the Memphis area — faces a challenge from Nikki Tinker, who is black. The race has received attention because of ads that Tinker is running that features an image of the Ku Klux Klan and another one that says, “While he’s in our churches, clapping his hands and tapping his feet … he’s the only senator who thought our kids shouldn’t be allowed to pray in school.” The primary comes just as Matt Bai has a New York Times magazine piece looking at whether Obama represents the end of black and racial politics. Cohen, who replaced Harold Ford Jr. in Congress, won his primary in 2006 because the black vote was so split. This time, he’s facing a smaller primary field.

*** On the trail: McCain holds a town hall in Lima, OH and attends a fundraiser Liberty Township, OH. And Obama begins his day in Minneapolis before heading to Chicago before his upcoming vacation to Hawaii.

Countdown to Dem convention: 18 days
Countdown to GOP convention: 25 days
Countdown to Election Day 2008: 89 days
Countdown to Inauguration Day 2009: 166 days

[Source:firstread.msnbc.msn]

PANAMA CITY, Fla. - Republican John McCain on Friday defended his campaign’s new Web ad mocking Barack Obama as a presumptuous messianic figure, saying it was important to “display a sense of humor” in the presidential contest.

The new ad, with a voiceover calling Obama “The One,” features clips of the Democratic contender appearing to describe himself and his presidential quest in grandiose terms — saying such things as, “This was the moment when the rise in the oceans began to slow, and our planet began to heal.” The ad ends with Charlton Heston as Moses parting the Red Sea in the movie, “The Ten Commandments.”

The ad was not set to air on any television stations, so the campaign was counting on it to attract viewers by circulating broadly on the Web. Still, it was McCain’s latest attempt to caricature his rival as an overweening but empty media phenomenon, coming on the heels of the campaign’s new television ad juxtaposing Obama with lightweight celebrities Britney Spears and Paris Hilton.

Obama spokesman Hari Sevugan slammed the Web ad, saying the Arizona senator was “spending all of his time and the powerful platform he has on these sorts of juvenile antics.”

McCain insisted he was running a “respectful” campaign and brushed off complaints from critics and even some supporters that his tone had taken a sharply negative turn in recent days.

“I don’t think our campaign isn’t negative in the slightest,” McCain said. “We think it’s got a lot of humor in it, we’re having fun and enjoying it … we’ll continue to fight and scrap all the way to November 4.”

McCain also reiterated his contention that Obama had injected race into the campaign, a day after McCain’s campaign manager accused the Illinois senator of “playing the race card” by suggesting Republicans were trying to scare voters away from Obama because he “doesn’t look like all those other presidents on the dollar bills.”

“I didn’t bring up the issue. Senator Obama did,” McCain insisted.

Source:

John McCain distanced himself for the Bush administration Tuesday by vowing to Hello How Are you? a good amount in detail surrounded by Russia on nuclear disarmament and by moving toward the elimination of tactical nuclear tools in Europe.

In how his campaign promoted as a substantial speech on nuclear security policy, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee imparted upon a pithy crowd at the University of Denver too he can pursue a new arms control agreement surrounded by the Russians and too he supported a lawfully binding accord between the two nations to replace verification facilities in the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, or START, that could expire in 2009.

The Bush administration has refused to accept this type of binding limits on nuclear weapons, that its critics say has came up with paranoia in Moscow. McCain’s proposal to destroy tactical nuclear tools in Europe sets him apart of President Bush as well.

“Russia and the United States are no longer mortal enemies,” McCain argued in a speech which was interrupted at lowest thre times by hecklers opposed to the Iraq war. “As our two countries possess the devastating majority of the world’s nuclear weapons, we own a special responsibility to decreases this number. I figure we when and if diminish our nuclear forces to the minimum grade we judge necessary, and we as long as be forecasted to input to a new arms control agreement investing in Russia reflecting the nuclear reductions I can seek.”

In addition, McCain said, “we serves to

be able to think in on Russia on binding verification measures founded on persons already in affects underneath the Start agreement, to add to popular credence and transparency.”
But McCain’s slang of nuclear cooperation provided Russia declared topics regarding how receptive Moscow might be to McCain if he got elected, ever since a different of his bids - exclusive of Russia for the Group of Eight industrialized countries - looks guaranteed to test relations.

McCain’s remarks got his various significant as a presidential candidate on nuclear policy and got half of his struggle to advance his nationwide security credentials compared providing individuals of Sen. Barack Obama, a Democratic candidate. Although McCain touched on the subject in late March in a sizeable out of country policy address in Los Angeles, his speech in Denver served as a marker of at which a McCain administration would stand on nuclear proliferation and arms deals amidst the Russians.

He spoke a reduced amount of expansively just about Iran and North Korea, the two !no! nations whose nuclear programs would most recent the consequently president providing a hardy set of decisions. But he did not hint any substantive departure based on the process set by Bush in wrestling provided individuals countries.

McCain attained certain nods to the neoconservatives in his party who hold advocated a more challenging string in out of country policy. But his emphasis on greater engagement amid Russia and his distinguishable willingness to still be the administration’s contemporary policy of maintaining connect with provided North Korea, normally throughout multilateral talks, led a couple of market observors to describe his method as owing a greater amount of to the so-called international policy realists, who have a tendency to be lowered hawkish and a great deal more focused on diplomacy and multilateral institutions.

In his speech, McCain too departed from what i read in Bush administration policy by promising to strengthen the Non-Proliferation Treaty; proposing increased loan for the International Atomic Energy Agency and requiring so undisclosed transfers of sensitive nuclear technology of one globe to an additional be considered “illicit and subject to interdiction;” and by calling for nuclear talks provided China.

Barack Obama criticized Republican rival John McCain on two tracks Tuesday, linking him to the policies of the Bush administration and deriding his region bids as signal too he is “out of touch amid the struggles of struggling people.”

As Obama campaigned against McCain here, Hillary Rodham Clinton appeared in Montana, at which Democrats is planning to vote afterward Tuesday in one of the nation’s the previous primaries.

McCain should term investing in Russia on nuclear disarmament </news/nationworld/washingtondc/la-na-campaign28-2008may28,0,6275468.story>
The varying paths the two Democratic aspirants took Tuesday signaled the looming end of such a contest, among Obama campaigning as even though he at this moment is his party’s standard-bearer and Clinton a good deal contesting the nomination.

Obama, in the midst of a three-day swing of impending Western battleground states, depleted the struggles of a Las Vegas family facing foreclosure through shooting up financings bills to illustrate how has emerged as a key theme of his campaign — the nation’s sputtering economy.

Obama visited the single-story stucco piece of real estate of Felicitas Rosel, a maid, and her husband, Francisco Cano, a porter. The casino workforces bought this first and foremost property 3 decades ago amongst an adjustable-rate mortgage. Rising degrees hold pushed them to the brink of foreclosure.

“This is a drastic question all around Las Vegas, all every where in Nevada, all throughout the nation,” the Illinois senator said. “A lot of such wouldn’t own occurred if we are able to hold carried out a proper job regulating banks.”

Later, operating to supporters right here at the College of Southern Nevada, Obama paid off to the theme, noting the McCain stated the first part of in the campaign such a “economics is not somewhat I’ve appreciated as vastly as I plans to have.”

In addition, he accused McCain in an sector speech the preceding week of ignoring the financial crisis.

Obama moreover mocked the Arizona senator for the duration of a private fundraiser Tuesday featuring President Bush.

“No cameras. No reporters. And we all appreciate why,” he said. “Sen. McCain does not covet to be seen, hat in hand, through the president whose failed policies he promises to stay for an extra two years.”

McCain spokesman Tucker Bounds argued the candidate beforehand had proposed a key to the financial problem and on Tuesday launched ads in swing alleges “highlighting his intentions to stave off foreclosures.”

“That did not avert Barack Obama based on information from producing a misinformed political attack,” Bounds said. “When Barack Obama’s better innovations affix just about $50 billion of taxpayer income amidst no guarantee too it can not end up in the hands of speculators, and tax hikes on miniature organizations overly forward the sending in careers Americans need, it is simple this he merely certainly isn’t supposed to make our economy.”

Clinton, at an evening rally in Billings, Mont., moreover mentioned McCain — but it typically was to articulate too she are able to be the more steady Democratic candidate against him.

The New York senator acknowledged Obama’s “deep base of substantiation here” but otherwise spoke of her opponent obliquely.

“I knew too in presently campaign there has carried on a lot of beautiful rhetoric and excitement,” Clinton said, inserting the she had “run a campaign focused on solutions.”

Clinton as well lashed out at “the failed policies of presently Republican administration” and added such a “it’s been heard a extended period from the time the sector has stuttered and sputtered so much.”
 

In the survive year, Sen. Barack Obama has learned a truth or two around running for president, and Reggie Love has learned a concern or two approximately Barack Obama.
Love now knows which when it comes to food, Obama “eats relatively a good deal anything, based on what i read in chicken wings and barbecue and ribs to grilled fish and steamed broccoli.” But when he is campaigning in a pitiful town investing in limited options, a cheeseburger is ever a well bet.
He knows which “the boss,” as he calls Obama, likes MET-Rx chocolate roasted-peanut protein bars and bottles of a hard-to-find organic brew — Black Forest Berry Honest Tea.
Love, 26, is Obama’s person man, the personalized allow who shadows the senator and anticipates all of it he needs. He is the concluding assistant, rarely a good amount of as opposed to a person total amount away based on what i read in the candidate.
Young, eager campaign supports are availability characters in movies and on television, but few experience fairly the elan of Love, who, at 6-foot-5, is in regards to 3 inches taller as opposed to the tall candidate, fitter as opposed to the fit candidate and cooler as opposed to the cool candidate.
“There’s no skepticism too Reggie is cooler as opposed to I am,” Obama said, laughing, in a phone interview. “I am leading vicariously during Reggie.”
Love, who played football and basketball at Duke, for the most part starts the day amidst Obama through a dawn workout in the hotel gym. They end the day larger number of as opposed to 15 hours later, often unwinding by watching ESPN’s SportsCenter.
Obama claimed he regarded Love as the kid toy Batman doll he never had. “But probably I’m claiming such a only as he technically ought to be my son,” he said. “I do not like to admit my age.”
Love believed he had carried on paid providing “no job description whatsoever.”
“It was just like, ‘You clearly go out there and — Take. Care. Of. Stuff,’ ” Love said, rendering his phase amongst every word.
When Obama slowed food on his tie additonally eating in the car between stops, Love was expected through a Tide pen.
He repeatedly carries one, along in ballpoint pens, and has turned himself to a walking dispensary of Sharpies, stationery, protein bars, throat lozenges, water, tea, Advil, Tylenol, Purell and emergency Nicorette.
After the senator gave his victory speech in Raleigh once lucrative the North Carolina primary, Love rode to the airport amongst Obama, who was flying to Chicago. Love was staying behind in his residence economy to catch up amid friends.
“Michelle was like: ‘Where are you staying? Don’t get to too even trouble,’” Love argued of Obama’s wife.
Waiting ahead, once all, got additionally the beginning of mornings in the gym and a large amount of for a while now days on the road.
 

Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton every picked up a delegate in Georgia on Saturday as sector Democrats particular this delegation to the party’s countrywide convention in Denver that summer.
Obama picked up a different superdelegate afterward Saturday in Wyoming, at that time one a good amount in Alaska. Obama moreover took a pledged delegate according to Clinton at Alaska’s Democratic party convention Saturday.
That brings Obama’s general delegates to 1,974 — easily 52 shy of the 2,026 needed to protected the presidential nomination — to Clinton’s 1,779.
The two add-on delegates in Georgia are area party secretary Stephen Leeds, an Obama supporter, and Verna Cleveland, who was Clinton’s Georgia arrangement director.
The add-on in Wyoming was neighborhood Rep. W. Patrick Goggles, who imparted upon the Associated Press in the wake of his choice such a he is planning to substantiation Obama at the convention.
In Alaska, former Gov. Tony Knowles alleged he is able to validation Obama for president.
Obama won Georgia’s Feb. 5 primary. Of the state’s 30 at-large and pledged delegates, 20 are Obama supporters and 10 are Clinton supporters. Georgia furthermore has 13 superdelegates, through seven committed to Obama and 3 to Clinton. Three are legally undecided, and also former President Jimmy Carter.
In Wyoming’s March caucuses, Obama defeated Clinton 61 per cent to 38 percent, Obama taking up seven pledged delegates to Clinton’s five. He has the validation of thre of the state’s superdelegates, providing two remaining uncommitted.
In Alaska’s caucuses persist February, Obama got 75 per cent of the vote, among the additional 25 per cent expected to Clinton. Obama’s ultimate delegate count was 14, combined with one superdelegates; Clinton’s was four, as well as one superdelegate.

Anybody who believes the God sent Adolf Hitler to sector in circumstances to assist Jews make contact with the promised side yards is likely in grim fancy of psychiatric help. Yet this was half of the rusty junk which came out of the mouth of Texas preacher John Hagee.
You may remember the the influential televangelist just recently put up to hear by funding Republican John McCain. It can be noted, by the way, who Hagee’s weekly television prove is gradual viewing for millions of Americans.
Last week, McCain lastly rejected Hagee’s month-old enactment by calling who comment “crazy and unacceptable.”
Another known preacher who tossed his validation to McCain was Rod Parsley, the pastor of World Harvest church in suburban Ohio. Parsley dubbed Islam “inherently violent” - the serious word right here making “inherently.” You will own to be a dripping yo-yo to not can make out so ensured extremist ingredients of Islam experience based on a lack of cognitive sufficiency. However, to type all Muslims as “inherently” violent is a true stretch to loo-loo land.
Parsley has furthermore referred to as the Muslim prophet Mohammed “the mouthpiece of a conspiracy of spiritual evil.”
So it was refreshing to hear the present Sen. McCain rejected Parsley’s validation too. He imparted upon an Associated Press reporter, “I be sure there is no place for the present sort of dialogue in America, and I imagine which still while he passed me, and I did not endorse him, the thing is overly I repudiate these kinds of talk, and I repudiate his endorsement.”
While Hagee’s version on the formation of Israel was how lead to McCain to reject his support, Catholics experience kept on essentially offended by the televangelist’s endorsement. From his mega-church in San Antonio, Hagee has referred to the Roman Catholic Church as “the fine whore” and identified it a “false cult system” and the “apostate church.”
McCain, who sent two of his children to Catholic school, said, “I categorically reject and repudiate any statement who was acquired too was anti-Catholic, both in intent and nature. I categorically reject it, and I repudiate it,” McCain said.
Hagee’s licensing had continued designed to shore up McCain’s substantiation with evangelical or born-again Christians, different of whom distrust McCain for particular of his more cynical views and his willingness to endeavor providing Democrats.
In a too little, too late effort, Hagee formed a tardy run to do Other damage repair by apologizing to Catholics in a letter the present was released merely survive week. Hagee wrote, “I wish to express my deep regret for any comments such a Catholics undergo at last found hurtful.” Shortly once that, Hagee withdrew his approval of McCain professing the current critics had distorted his comments and got “grossly misrepresenting” positions so got pretty well and dear to his heart.
In Hagee’s words, “I am tired of such baseless fits and fear properties own become a distraction in how ought to be a nationwide debate about substantial issues. I have, therefore, resolved to withdraw my enactment of Senator McCain for president effective today, and to remove for one from what i read in any active role in the 2008 campaign.”
So what is to be built of all this? The repudiated endorsements given that send up a lead to so any validation based on the haters in American society are not welcome.
Still, how took so for a while to reject such endorsements? Hagee’s certifying was received on February 27, clearly before the Texas presidential primary. This is late May. Why did McCain wait so long?
In the end though, McCain’s positions are possibly a larger amount of in succession providing Catholic teaching as opposed to any of the more aspirants that whores him a clear side&wshyp;line amid observant Catholic voters.
On the a multitude of hand, it are able to suffer kept on higher to suffer reacted further right away quite as opposed to hold to wait for the nutsy comments on Hitler and tarnishing all of Islam as making inherently violent.
Between Jeremiah Wright, John Hagee and Rod Parsley, one can easily wonder about which Bible properties are employing as a cause for this sermons.

Carol J. Williams, Los Angeles Times

In Florida, candidate says he wants to ‘turn the page’ on relations with island nation
When the Clinton administration returned young castaway Elian Gonzalez in 2000 to Communist-ruled Cuba - a government his mother died trying to flee - angry Cuban exiles helped deliver Florida’s electoral votes and victory to Republican presidential candidate George W. Bush.

Four years later, President Bush carried the state again, with the help of strong Cuban American support rallied by his tightening of sanctions against Cuba and obtaining the release from a Panamanian prison of four exiles considered heroes for having plotted to kill Fidel Castro.

But as the ailing Castro fades from the scene and his brother and successor, Raul Castro, loosens the strictures on a society hungry for change, this year’s presidential candidates are confronted with a more complex Cuban American electorate to woo.

Illinois Sen. Barack Obama plunged boldly into these uncharted political waters Friday when he called for “direct diplomacy, with friend and foe alike” in a speech to the Cuban American National Foundation, a group that has become more moderate in recent years but remains a bastion of anti-Castro sentiment.

Obama said he would “turn the page” on half a century of policy that isolates Cuba.

He acknowledged the political risk he was taking. Many of the wealthiest and most influential Cuban Americans still embrace a strategy of trying to starve the Castro-led regime into submission.

Cuban Americans, who comprise the most politically active and wealthiest constituency in this battleground state, traditionally have voted for the candidate with the hardest line against their homeland.

For the past 47 years, under both Democratic and Republican administrations, an embargo has been in place on trade with and travel to Cuba. The tightening of sanctions four years ago, limiting Cuban American visits to family on the island to once every three years, has swollen the ranks of exiles and emigres amenable to change.

Despite the tepid response Obama received to his vow to meet Cuban leaders “without preconditions,” a growing number of political strategists say that younger Cuban Americans and those who have arrived more recently have tired of the diplomatic deadlock.

Jorge Mursuli, the 47-year-old founder of the national Hispanic civic engagement group Democracia USA, says now is “a moment in time” when Cuban Americans are receptive to a new message like Obama’s.

His late parents made him promise to take care of an elderly aunt in Cuba - something he is forbidden by U.S. law from doing, because the 2004 tightening of sanctions restricted remittances to parents, siblings and children.

Obama also said he would repeal restrictions on how much money Cuban Americans can send to the island and how often they can visit family.

“This is something so basic, so guttural, so core that it transcends any ideology. How dare the government get between me and my mother’s dying wish,” Mursuli said.

When Obama told his audience, “I know what the easy thing is to do for American politicians,” he was recalling successful presidential candidates’ promises to maintain a hard line against Cuba. He said Arizona Sen. John McCain, the presumptive Republican nominee, had done just that when he vowed at a town hall meeting in Miami on Tuesday to maintain a status quo in policy toward Cuba.

McCain, meanwhile, has cast Obama as dangerously naive in offering to engage with leaders in Havana without first seeing political prisoners released and free elections held.

Obama’s Democratic rival, New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, who also campaigned in South Florida this week, said nothing about how she would handle the American-Cuban diplomatic conundrum. Her only reference to the Communist-ruled island was in a statement issued on Tuesday’s Cuban Independence Day holiday urging Raul Castro “to take an historic step to bring Cuba into the community of democratic nations.”

Source:sfgate