McCain hits Obama on Cuba policy

For the last few days, John McCain has slammed Barack Obama for diplomatic overtures to Iran's president -- and Obama has responded in kind, tying McCain to the unpopular war in Iraq.

Today, the presumptive Republican nominee hits the Democratic front-runner for wanting to talk to Raul Castro of Cuba.

In a speech scheduled this morning in Florida to mark Cuba's Independence Day, McCain says Obama is also misguided for wanting to ease the US trade embargo.

"These steps would send the worst possible signal to Cuba’s dictators -- there is no need to undertake fundamental reforms, they can simply wait for a unilateral change in US policy," McCain says in prepared remarks released by his campaign. "I believe we should give hope to the Cuban people, not to the Castro regime. My administration will press the Cuban regime to release all political prisoners unconditionally, to legalize all political parties, labor unions, and free media, and to schedule internationally monitored elections."

McCain also dismisses the "reforms" put in place by Raul Castro, who took power with the ill health of his brother Fidel, the longtime leader of Cuba.

"Such characterizations must sound quite cynical to the political prisoners that fill Cuban jails, to the millions who suffer under poverty and repression, and to all those who wish to choose their leaders, not suffer under them," McCain says in the prepared remarks. "The Castro regime enforces strict limits against freedom of expression, of association, of assembly, of movement, of speech."

Cuban-Americans are an important political force in Florida, especially for Republicans. Obama plans to visit the key swing state on Wednesday.

Florida Democrats accused McCain of flip-flopping on the issue of talking to Cuban leaders and said he now represents an unproductive status quo.

"John McCain offers a third Bush term. He does not represent the change we need," Joe Garcia, chairman of the Miami-Dade Democratic Party, said in a statement. "He has literally occupied every position on the waterfront on Cuban policy. This is no Maverick. This is someone who has changed his opinion to whatever is most politically expedient. He can't be trusted."

The Obama campaign also delegated Senator Chris Dodd of Connecticut and Governor Bill Richardson of New Mexico to criticize McCain.

"John McCain needs to explain why continuing to do exactly what George Bush has done will somehow produce a different result. The Senator McCain I used to know was open to negotiations with Cuba to lift the embargo, but now he’s taking a hard line position, embracing a policy that has failed the Cuban people and the American people alike for fifty years. Instead of four more years of George Bush's policy, Barack Obama will help bring liberty to Cuba through direct diplomacy and change that allows for unlimited family visitation and remittances to the island. It's time to reject a Bush-McCain approach that has isolated us in our own hemisphere, so that we can have renewed American leadership under Barack Obama," Dodd said in a statement.

Tucker Bounds, a McCain spokesman, responded:

"John McCain has called for the release of political prisoners and free elections, and Barack Obama proposes to end the embargo on Communist Cuba and an unconditional summit with the Castros, and Senator Obama sees those being equivalent? Barack Obama’s type of weak judgment and weak leadership on foreign policy is unacceptable inside the Cuban community and will be problematic going forward."

UPDATE: Obama disputed McCain's criticisms.

"I have never said that I was prepared to immediately normalize relations with Cuba," Obama said on CNN this afternoon. The only person who has flip-flopped on this issue is John McCain who in 2000 said that he would be prepared to start normalizing relations even if a whole host of steps have not been taken. That is a reversal from the position he is taking now.

"What I have said is that we should loosen up the ability of Cuban-Americans to provide remittances to their family members, to travel to Cuba to visit family members as a show of good faith and that if we could see progress on a whole host of issues than we should move in the direction of normalization because what we have done over the last 50 years obviously not has worked for what is the primary criteria of US-Cuban policy, which is making sure that the Cuban people have freedom," Obama continued.

"And what I have also said is that I will be willing to engage in direct talks with Cuba. Now, I know that John McCain likes to characterize this as me immediately having Raul Castro over for tea. What I’ve said is that we would set a series of meetings with low level diplomats, set up some preparation but that over time I would be willing to meet and talk very directly about what we expect from the Cuban regime."

Hillary Clinton issued a statement marking Cuban Independence Day, reaffirming her stand not to relax trade restrictions until the "government takes concrete steps to guarantee political and civil liberties and permit free and fair elections" and pledging to work with partners in Latin America and Europe for a peaceful transition to democracy.

"After nearly 50 years of one-man rule, the new leadership in Cuba faces a choice -- continue with the failed policies of the past that have stifled democratic freedoms and stunted economic growth -- or take an historic step to bring Cuba into the community of democratic nations," the statement said.

"Since Raul Castro formally took power, he has announced some measures that have the potential to make improvements in the lives of the Cuban people, including easing regulations on the purchase of computers and cell phones. Unfortunately, these are merely incremental steps in a society that yearns for genuine freedoms and a democratic opening. The new authorities should take immediate steps to release political prisoners, permit free expression and assembly, and set the stage for open and competitive elections."