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Obama Names Republicans He'll Work With

The Cuban-exile vote is considered key to winning Florida, and top presidential candidates have generally followed the recommendations of the community's most hard-line and vocal leaders, who support a full embargo against Castro's government.

But many in the large Cuban American community want to be able to visit and help family and support the idea of looser restrictions.


Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., speaks to a crowd of supporters during a campaign fundraiser at the Mansion nightclub in Miami Beach, Fla., Saturday, Aug. 25, 2007. (AP Photo/David Adame)
Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., speaks to a crowd of supporters during a campaign fundraiser at the Mansion nightclub in Miami Beach, Fla., Saturday, Aug. 25, 2007. (AP Photo/David Adame) (David Adame - AP)

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Obama said he wouldn't lift the current trade embargo, and said his offer to normalize relations in a post-Castro Cuba would be made after the country opened up to democratic change.

"Until there's justice in Cuba, there's no justice anywhere," Obama said. "We will talk to our enemies as well as our friends and both to our enemies and to our friends, we will tell them the truth and tell them what we stand for."

Obama was in Florida at the same time the Democratic National Committee voted to strip Florida of all its presidential delegates if the state party sticks to a plan for a Jan. 29 primary. He said, however, that Florida will still be large player in the general election and that he will seek to remain competitive here.

"The national party has a difficult task, which is to try to create some order out of chaos," Obama said. "My job is really not to speculate on how to make it all work. I'm a candidate, I'm like a player on the field. I shouldn't be setting up the rules."

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Associated Press Writer Laura Wides-Munoz contributed to this report from Miami.


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