MIAMI — When the Clinton administration returned young castaway Elian Gonzalez in 2000 to communist-ruled Cuba, a regime his mother died trying to flee, angry Cuban exiles helped deliver Florida's electoral votes and victory to Republican presidential contender George W. Bush.
Four years later, President Bush again carried this state. His strong support by Cuban Americans was rallied by his tightening of sanctions against Cuba and obtaining the release from a Panamanian prison of four local exiles considered heroes for having plotted to kill Fidel Castro.
But as the ailing longtime Cuban leader 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.
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 isolating Cuba.
He acknowledged the political risk he was taking. Many of the wealthiest and most influential Cuban Americans still embrace an approach of trying to starve the regime into submission.
When Obama pledged to meet with that regime, the sparse applause in the crowded banquet hall spoke volumes.
Cuban Americans, who compose the most politically active and wealthiest constituency in this battleground state, have traditionally voted for the candidate with the hardest line against the government of their homeland.
For 47 years, trade with and travel to Cuba have been embargoed. 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 to Obama's pledge to meet Cuban leaders "without preconditions," a growing number of political strategists say that younger Cuban Americans and more recent arrivals have tired of the diplomatic deadlock.
That evolution has affected some in the older generation, as well. Foundation President Francisco "Pepe" Hernandez, once a staunch advocate of the diplomatic deep freeze, said a new approach was in order.
