​Correct The Record Wednesday December 17, 2014 Afternoon Roundup

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*​**Correct The Record Wednesday December 17, 2014 Afternoon Roundup:* *Tweets:* *Correct The Record* @CorrectRecord: .@HillaryClinton <https://twitter.com/HillaryClinton> worked to manage the risk of food allergies in schools #HRC365 <https://twitter.com/hashtag/HRC365?src=hash> https://www.congress.gov/bill/109th-congress/senate-bill/3980 … <https://t.co/xr3Jte85m1> [12/16/14, 4:03 p.m. EST <https://twitter.com/CorrectRecord/status/544960969739612161>] *Headlines:* *New York Times: First Draft: “On Cuba, Hillary Clinton an Advocate for Normalizing Relations” <http://www.nytimes.com/politics/first-draft/2014/12/17/?entry=7228>* “The move to normalize relations with Cuba was something that Hillary Rodham Clinton had been advocating for a while.” *Time: “Here’s What Hillary Clinton Had to Say About Alan Gross, U.S.-Cuba Relations in Hard Choices” <http://time.com/3637669/heres-what-hillary-clinton-had-to-say-about-alan-gross-u-s-cuba-relations-in-hard-choices/>* [Subtitle:] “Former Secretary of State Clinton considers the U.S.'s failure to bring Alan Gross home one of her ‘regrets’” *Time: “Why Democrats Changed Their Minds on Cuba” <http://time.com/3637887/cuba-normalize-democrats/>* “Hillary Clinton’s position has evolved over the years.” *New York Times: “Political Battles Likely as U.S. Shifts Stance Toward Cuba” <http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/18/us/us-cuba-diplomatic-relations-agreement-shakes-up-politics.html>* “Mrs. Clinton argued that the embargo has propped up the Castro government because Cuban officials can blame the United States for all the country’s problems.” *Politico: “Poll: Voters cool to a Hillary Clinton campaign” <http://www.politico.com/story/2014/12/poll-hillary-clinton-2016-113632.html#ixzz3M9uYFJVW>* "Democratic voters also continue to swarm to Clinton, with 82 percent saying they would support her bid. Fifty-one percent would back Vice President Joe Biden, and 37 percent said they’d support Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren." *NJ.com: “Chris Christie will move up his 2016 presidential timetable, Christie Whitman says” <http://www.nj.com/politics/index.ssf/2014/12/chris_christie_will_move_up_his_2016_presidential_timetable_christie_whitman_says.html>* “If Gov. Chris Christie is interested in making a bid for the Oval Office in 2016, everyone may find out about it sooner rather than later, says former Gov. Christie Whitman.” *Articles:* *New York Times: First Draft: “On Cuba, Hillary Clinton an Advocate for Normalizing Relations” <http://www.nytimes.com/politics/first-draft/2014/12/17/?entry=7228>* By Alan Rappeport December 17, 2014, 11:54 a.m. EST The move to normalize relations with Cuba was something that Hillary Rodham Clinton had been advocating for a while. She wrote about it in her book, Hard Choices, and spoke passionately about it during an interview with Fusion last summer. “I would like to see that end,” Mrs. Clinton said of the embargo. “I think it has been a failure.” Mrs. Clinton argued that the embargo has propped up the Castro government because they can blame all of the country’s problems on the United States. Moreover, the embargo did not have any impact on freedom of speech, freedom of expression or on freeing political prisoners. The former secretary of state and potential 2016 candidate said that she would like to see the United States influence Cuba through commerce, trade and travel. She also noted that she hoped the Alan Gross situation would be resolved and that she could someday travel to the country. *Time: “Here’s What Hillary Clinton Had to Say About Alan Gross, U.S.-Cuba Relations in Hard Choices” <http://time.com/3637669/heres-what-hillary-clinton-had-to-say-about-alan-gross-u-s-cuba-relations-in-hard-choices/>* By Maya Rhodan December 17, 2014, 10:43 a.m. EST [Subtitle:] Former Secretary of State Clinton considers the U.S.'s failure to bring Alan Gross home one of her "regrets" Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton wrote in her recent autobiography one of her biggest regrets of her tenure was that she was not able to bring home an American who was held as a prisoner in Cuba. Today, President Obama will announce that Alan Gross, a USAID contractor who was arrested in 2009 for bringing satellite equipment to Cuba, will return to the U.S. In Hard Choices, Clinton calls the Cuban government’s refusal to release Gross unless the U.S. released five convicted Cuban spies a “double tragedy,” saying in part: “It is possible that hard liners within the regime exploited the Gross case as an opportunity to put the brakes on any possible rapprochement with the United States and the domestic reforms that would require. If so, it is a double tragedy, cosigning millions of Cubans to a kind of continued imprisonment as well.” On the embargo, she had this to say: “Near the end of my tenure I recommended to President Obama that he take another look at our embargo. It wasn’t achieving its goals and it was holding back our broader agenda across Latin America. After twenty years of observing and dealing with the U.S.-Cuba relationshiot, I thought we should shift the onus onto the Castros to explain why they remained undemocratic and abusive.” *Time: “Why Democrats Changed Their Minds on Cuba” <http://time.com/3637887/cuba-normalize-democrats/>* By Haley Sweetland Edwards December 17, 2014, 12:29 p.m. EST It used to be that national politicians of both parties would diligently travel to Florida during every election cycle and compete, in speeches and town hall meetings, over who could be more in favor of the embargo on Cuba. It was, after all, common political sense: Cuban-Americans were, for decades, a fairly monolithic voting bloc and their feelings toward the embargo were unequivocal. They were for it. No ifs, ands, or maybes. But in the last decade, all that has changed. The reason is shifting demographics—the same trend that rocketed President Obama to the White House in 2008 and 2012 and that will do more to influence the outcome of 2016 than perhaps anything else. Younger Cuban-Americans are less into the embargo than their parents’ generation, and much more in favor of relaxing laws to make it easier to travel and trade with the island. This shifting dynamic is going to play out in 2016, too. In fact, it already has. Jeb Bush, who announced yesterday that he is considering a run for the White House, takes the old-school hardline position. He’s in favor of the embargo, full stop. Meanwhile, Hillary Clinton’s position has evolved over the years. In 2000, when she was running for Senate, and in 2008, when she was running for the Democratic nomination, she too took the old-school stance. In December 2007, she said rather clearly that the embargo was the law of the land, and it wasn’t going anywhere anytime soon. “Until there is some recognition on the part of whoever is in charge of the Cuban government that they have to move toward democracy and freedom for the Cuban people, it will be very difficult for us to change our policy,” she said. But then, as Secretary of State, her position began to crack, and then soften, and then flip entirely. She called on Obama to take a second look at the embargo, which she argued was actually helping Fidel and Raul Castro, not Americans. “It is my personal belief that the Castros do not want to see an end to the embargo and do not want to see normalization with the United States, because they would lose all of their excuses for what hasn’t happened in Cuba in the last 50 years,” she said in a 2010 speech in Kentucky. *New York Times: “Political Battles Likely as U.S. Shifts Stance Toward Cuba” <http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/18/us/us-cuba-diplomatic-relations-agreement-shakes-up-politics.html>* By Ashley Parker and Jonathan Martin December 17, 2014 The startling announcement that the United States and Cuba will restore full diplomatic relations and open an embassy in Havana could fill in one of the most enduring fault lines in American politics and reshape the fight to win the vital battleground state of Florida. For more than a generation, Republicans have taken a hard line against the communist nation, endearing themselves to the politically potent bloc of Cuban-Americans who have been a crucial force in deciding elections in the state. But those animosities have given way to generational shift, and younger voters who have family ties to Cuba — but no direct memories of the island under Fidel Castro — have been willing to support Democrats. The Hispanic population of Florida is also increasingly made up of former residents of Puerto Rico, who typically vote Democratic. President Obama won the state twice, and Republican presidential candidates have an extremely difficult time winning without winning Florida’s Electoral College votes. Now the issues debated in the state are likely to change, even if those long simmering disputes about Cuba linger. The news offered an early glimpse into the challenges facing Jeb Bush, the former Republican governor of Florida, who on Tuesday announced he was going to explore a 2016 presidential run. While Mr. Bush praised the release of Mr. Gross on Tuesday, earlier this month, in a speech to a group of pro-embargo Cuban exiles at the Biltmore Hotel in Coral Gables, Fla., he called for the embargo to be strengthened. “Will lifting the embargo change the fact that the government receives almost all the money that comes from these people that travel to the island?” he said. “Cuba is a dictatorship, plain and simple. The United States should only have a new relationship with Cuba when there is progress on basic human rights of the Cuban people, including the release of political prisoners, fair and free elections, the respect of the rule of law, the cessation of destabilizing countries in the region and the embrace of a free-market economy.” Among the new generation of Cuban-Americans there is far less passion for the embargo. There is even less among those of Puerto Rican heritage. “Each day that passes, the proportion of the Hispanic electorate that comes from embargo-era Cubans shrinks, and they are now vastly outnumbered by an explosion of new Puerto Rican voters,” said Steve Schale, a Democratic strategist in Florida who worked on both Obama campaigns there. “Moreover, the grandchildren and now great-grandchildren of those embargo era Cubans have a more open view towards the Cuban question.” Even so, Senator Marco Rubio, Republican of Florida and a potential 2016 candidate, slammed the rapprochement Wednesday. “Today’s announcement initiating a dramatic change in U.S. policy toward Cuba is just the latest in a long line of failed attempts by President Obama to appease rogue regimes at all cost,” Mr. Rubio, a Cuban-American, said in a statement. “When America is unwilling to advocate for individual liberty and freedom of political expression 90 miles from our shores, it represents a terrible setback for the hopes of all oppressed people around the globe.” Mr. Rubio said “America will be less safe as a result of the president’s change in policy,” and promised to use his perch as the incoming chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee’s Western Hemisphere subcommittee to block Mr. Obama’s diplomatic efforts with Cuba. Senator Robert Menendez, Democrat of New Jersey and one of three senators with Cuban ancestry, also criticized the president, who as part of a larger agreement with Cuba is releasing three Cuban spies who were arrested in Miami in 2001. Mr. Menendez, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, warned that the exchange sets a “an extremely dangerous precedent.” “Let’s be clear,” he said, “this was not a ‘humanitarian’ act by the Castro regime. It was a swap of convicted spies for an innocent American. "This asymmetrical trade will invite further belligerence toward Cuba’s opposition movement and the hardening of the government’s dictatorial hold on its people.” Senator Bob Corker, Republican of Tennessee, who will take over as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in January, was more reserved. “The new U.S. policy announced by the administration is no doubt sweeping, and as of now there is no real understanding as to what changes the Cuban government is prepared to make,” he said in a statement. “We will be closely examining the implications of these major policy changes in the next Congress.” Ana M. Carbonell, a Cuban-American Republican strategist in South Florida, said Mr. Obama’s move would place pressure on Hillary Rodham Clinton. “She’s going to have to make a serious evaluation about this and decide which side of history she wants to be on,” Ms. Carbonell said. Should Mrs. Clinton run for president, she said, her chances of winning Florida will suffer “unless she distances herself from this decision” Ms. Carbonell rejected the idea that the generational shift among Cuban-Americans and the rise in Florida’s Puerto Rican population had made the embargo issue less potent in statewide races. She pointed to this year’s race for governor, in which the unpopular incumbent, Gov. Rick Scott, a Republican who backs the embargo, defeated Charlie Crist, a Democrat. “Crist would have been the first Florida governor in history to openly favor normalizing relations and look at the results,” she said. (Mr. Crist won decisively among Hispanics who were not from Cuba, but only narrowly among Cuban-Americans). Mrs. Clinton has been advocating for a normalization of relations with Cuba for some time. She wrote about it in her book “Hard Choices” and spoke passionately about it during an interview with Fusion last summer. “I would like to see that end,” Mrs. Clinton said of the embargo. “I think it has been a failure.” Mrs. Clinton argued that the embargo has propped up the Castro government because Cuban officials can blame the United States for all the country’s problems. Moreover, she said, the embargo did not have any impact on freedom of speech, freedom of expression or on freeing political prisoners. The former secretary of state said she would like to see the United States influence Cuba through commerce, trade and travel. She has also said that she hoped the Alan Gross situation would be resolved and that she could someday travel to the country. *Politico: “Poll: Voters cool to a Hillary Clinton campaign” <http://www.politico.com/story/2014/12/poll-hillary-clinton-2016-113632.html#ixzz3M9uYFJVW>* By Lucy McCalmont December 17, 2014, 7:27 a.m. EST Voters are sharply divided about a Hillary Clinton run for the White House, although she still has sizable advantages over other potential Democratic and Republican candidates, a new poll shows. Fifty percent of those surveyed said they could support Clinton, and 48 percent said they would oppose her potential presidential bid, according to an NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll released Wednesday. Clinton’s tenure with the Obama administration could also work against her, as 71 percent said they want the next president to take a different approach than the current occupant of the White House. Showing further voter fatigue, 40 percent said they want to see a Republican elected, whereas 38 percent prefer a Democrat. Nevertheless, Clinton’s numbers are still strong compared with those of the GOP hopefuls. Only 31 percent said they could support former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, who announced Tuesday he is actively exploring a bid, while 57 percent said they couldn’t see themselves supporting him. Thirty-three percent said they would back Mitt Romney, and 60 percent said they would not. Only 27 percent said they would back a run by New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie. Fifty-three percent said they’d oppose him. Democratic voters also continue to swarm to Clinton, with 82 percent saying they would support her bid. Fifty-one percent would back Vice President Joe Biden, and 37 percent said they’d support Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren. On the GOP side, Romney comes out on top of possible contenders, with 63 percent of Republican voters saying they would back another bid by the 2012 GOP presidential candidate. Fifty-five percent would favor a Bush bid, 47 percent would back former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, and 47 percent said they would support Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul if he were to run. More Republicans would actually oppose a Christie bid — 43 percent — than the 40 percent who said they would support him. The NBC/WSJ poll was conducted Dec. 10-14 and included 1,000 adults. It has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points, and a margin of error among all 836 registered voters of plus or minus 3.4 percentage points. *NJ.com: “Chris Christie will move up his 2016 presidential timetable, Christie Whitman says” <http://www.nj.com/politics/index.ssf/2014/12/chris_christie_will_move_up_his_2016_presidential_timetable_christie_whitman_says.html>* By Matt Arco December 17, 2014, 11:19 a.m. EST TRENTON — If Gov. Chris Christie is interested in making a bid for the Oval Office in 2016, everyone may find out about it sooner rather than later, says former Gov. Christie Whitman. “I think he’s probably going to have to move up his timetable,” Whitman said. Her statement follows news former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush will “actively explore the possibility of running for president” in addition to establishing a leadership PAC in January, Bush said on Tuesday. “By setting up this committee it allows Jeb Bush to put money in the bank and since money is the name of the game, … you’re going to want to lock people down,” Whitman said. “They’re going to try to make a move and they’re not going to want to wait too long.” Whitman’s comments comes on the heels of some national Republicans declaring Tuesday they’re lining up behind Bush despite being an “admirer” of Christie, said Mel Sembler, a former Republican National Committee finance chairman. Had Bush ruled out a run, “I absolutely would have looked at Christie,” he said. But to Republicans like Whitman, who previously doubted Bush would ever enter the 2016 fray, the recent announcement is “a clear signal” Bush is running – which has considerable implications to a Christie campaign, she says. “Look at some of the big donors in the past and see who donates to Jeb’s committee,” the former governor said “That will be the telling thing,” she said, “They will be making a bet (that Bush will win the nomination).”