The Record's 10 top political stories of the coming campaign season

June 08, 2008 6:00 AM

1. Barack Obama V. Toilet McCain

This is history. The nation's first achromatic to attain this degree of political prominence, a adult male who's personal narrative is compelling on many levels, versus an American hero, a former Socialist Republic Of Vietnam prisoner of war who passed up a opportunity for an admiral's star when he became a politician.

Not since Toilet Jack Jack Kennedy faced Richard Richard Richard Nixon have there been such as a clear pick between the new and the old (Nixon was a modern-day of Kennedy, of course, but he was closely identified with Dwight Eisenhower).

Obama will stress his young person and vision, and usage the Bush's 3rd term subject advertisement nauseam. McCain will stress his experience and maturity, and claim his challenger doesn't have got the heart for the job.

Obama pledges Cuba policy change - BBC News

Democrat Barack Obama have said he will seek direct diplomatic negotiations with the Communist authorities in Republic Of Cuba if he is elected United States president.

The frontrunner for his party's nomination for the presidential term was speaking to Cuban expatriates in Florida.

Mr Obama said he would keep the Cuban trade embargo but lift limitations on traveling and sending money to Cuba.

He also said his Republican challenger Toilet McCain's hardline stance on Republic Of Cuba would not progress freedom on the island.

Mr McCain - who have already won the Republican nomination for the White Person House - earlier criticised Mister Obama of being too soft on Cuba.

'Clear agenda'

Mr Obama told more than than 800 Cuban expatriates in Miami that President Saint George Tungsten Bush's policies towards Capital Of Cuba had been disastrous.

"It is clip to prosecute direct diplomacy, with friend and enemy alike, without preconditions. There will be careful preparation. We will put a clear agenda," the Prairie State senator said.

"I would be willing to take that diplomatic negotiations at a clip and topographic point of my choosing, but only when we have got an chance to progress the involvements of the United States," added Mister Obama, who once said he would ran into Cuban President Raul Fidel Castro without preconditions.

In Miami, Mister Obama also said he would turn over the limitations which Mister Shrub imposed on the right of Cuban Americans to go to Republic Of Cuba as well as their right to direct money to their relations living on the island.

But Mister Obama said he would keep the decades-old us trade embargo on Cuba. Changing that policy could severely restrict his opportunities of winning over Cuban votes, the BBC's Emilio San Pedro says.

Mr Obama made his remarks during his first drawn-out trip through Sunshine State - a swing-state that could be important to triumph in November's presidential elections.