Mediaboss Marketing

Story highlights White House weighing whether Obama should meet with Raul Castro A serious congressional ripple effect from the Menendez indictment? It's decision time for GOP operatives as the 2016ers get ready to launch 1. First a deal with Iran, now hug a Castro?

Obama's Iran diplomacy already has his conservative critics fired up, and things could get even more interesting in the week ahead.

The President is headed to Panama for a regional summit, and Julie Pace of The Associated Press reports one of the big questions is whether he'll make history and have a face-to-face meeting with Cuban leader Raul Castro.

"This would be the first meeting between a U.S. and a Cuban leader in decades," said Pace.

"But Obama's efforts to end this freeze of Cuba have been a lot more difficult than they looked when he announced it last year," Pace said. "And so what the White House is going to be weighing is whether this meeting would be a way to generate more progress or whether it would be a premature reward for the Castros."

Hillary Clinton has leased her headquarters space in Brooklyn and will soon make her presidential campaign official.

And with the launch, Jonathan Martin of The New York Times reports, will come a carefully orchestrated effort to reintroduce Clinton -- with an emphasis on her childhood and her earlier work on children's issues.

"The Democrats around Hillary Clinton believe that while she's one of the most famous people in the world, she's never been properly introduced in her own right," said Martin.

"So when she does roll out her campaign here in a couple of weeks, look for more biographical touches. We'll hear about her childhood in suburban Chicago and some of the work that she did as an advocate for the Legal Services Corporation and the Children's Defense Fund when she was in her 30s, and also, more about her Arkansas days as first lady, as an advocate for education."

A lot of the big names signing on to Team Clinton are already known. But Dan Balz of The Washington Post explains part of the statement her campaign wants to make with the announcement is to show it has a large, experienced staff ready for the key national and state roles.

Original post:
Hillary Clinton launch: giant staff and intimate events ...